Edmonds' artful gathering place

The new Edmonds Center for the Arts is a perfect fit with a city eager to be a regional gathering place for visual and performing arts.

Such ambition is natural because this gem of a small city, sparkling on the edge of Puget Sound, is known for its active arts community. The delight is that the dream-turned-reality is even better.

The absolute best way to experience Edmond's 700-seat pride and joy is to watch three local companies perform at 3 p.m. Saturday at 410 Fourth Avenue N. The event, "Coming Home," welcomes Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Olympic Ballet Theater and Sno-King Community Chorale back to the renovated space. Tickets are $5.

The community made do for too long with a hand-me-down, 1939 New Deal project appended to the area's first high school. Located "where the blue Pacific watches," according to an Edmonds High School song, the campus later became a junior high and then a private college.

Executive Director Joseph McIalwain said the auditorium's white walls, drop ceiling and 900 wooden seats left patrons with the feeling of filing into a school assembly. No more.

The curved exterior of the auditorium's Art Moderne styling was retained, along with original windows. But the foyer was opened up and spritzed up with bright colors and silver trim to highlight architectural features and impart a sense of drama and excitement. No more flashbacks of queuing up for a student council presentation.

Inside, the auditorium was transformed with warm colors and comfortable seating. Light and sound locks were added to buffer the audience against being disturbed by late arrivals — an expected feature in modern theaters. Removal of 200 seats narrowed the feel of the hall. Extending the stage put the audience and performers closer, and allowed the orchestra pit to hold seven more musicians, up to 24.

All the lighting, rigging, fabrics and sound equipment are new, befitting need and a fresh start. The auditorium's total makeover was designed by LMN Architects and the occult work of perfecting the hall's acoustical character was done by Jaffe Holden.

A busy 2007 preview season is already scheduled, but the new center is a financial and artistic work in progress. The total $18.5 million renovation cost is about $3 million short of being covered. A $1 million Building for the Arts grant is pending approval of the state budget.

This project is the beneficiary of generous private and corporate support, and tax dollars from every level of government. Edmonds Community College is both a benefactor and a theatrical client. The school has a musical scheduled for May.

Fundraising, especially via naming rights, is under way and will never end. Seats go for $1,000 a pop and the right to name the auditorium will go for a glorious sum. The campus will always be The Edmonds Center for the Arts.

Edmonds can boast of extraordinary civic heavy lifting by local political leaders on the Edmonds City Council, the Edmonds Public Facilities District and the Snohomish County Council, especially Councilman Gary Nelson. This opportunity flows out of state law to create regional amenities and pay for them with slivers of sales-tax revenue.

Snohomish County worked the law hard enough to yield an events center in Everett, an interpretive flight center at Paine Field, a convention center for Lynnwood and Edmonds' long-desired cultural center.

Little moments added up. City Hall hired a finance director from the county, and he brought along knowledge of the opportunities through facilities districts. As Puget Sound Christian College decided it was ready to sell, local people understood the site's potential.

This community asset will always carry a burden of numbers: capital debt to pay off, more money to renovate the back of the house — dressing rooms, administrative offices and such. Eventually, there'll be a parking garage topped perhaps by a restaurant and events space with catering. The view alone says ka-ching!

But other numbers speak to an early, genuine connection with a special place. Such as the 173 volunteers signed up to help usher and work concessions and host events.

On an afternoon when cold winds sang and white caps danced on Puget Sound, Edmonds Center for the Arts beamed at nature's welcome.

Lance Dickie's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is ldickie@seattletimes.com