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Sep. 15th, 2005 06:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbardI am an artist. I don't paint or sketch, but I write and I play. This is who I am. Without it, I disappear. I am a musician, and I am a writer. Right now where I live, there is only one auditorium that is used to support the entire school district, as well as the theatre and dance programs. My new high school, built last year, does not have an auditorium. In fact, arts teachers were specifically told not to ask for an auditorium - "You have the middle school." But as soon as we'd moved into the new high school, citizens and school board members began demanding that the middle school be torn down and rebuilt - without an auditorium.
Ellensburg has a significant number of arts programs. There are five bands (concert and jazz) at the middle school and four (concert and jazz) at the high school, three choirs at the middle school and four (concert and jazz) at the high school. The community puts on two major musicals a year: one by the high school (the winter musical) and one by the community (the summer musical). Our dance program (not part of the school) does almost their performances in the middle school auditorium. The annual talent show is held in the middle school auditorium. And the school board, our school board, means to tear it down and not replace it. What does this mean? It means our arts programs will suffer drastically. The musicals won't happen. The dance program will suffer. Those non-musicians on the school board says we can play and perform in the gym. Well, as any musician knows, auditoriums and performance halls are specifically designed to channel sound. In a gym, the sound will dissipate. It sounds horrible when you play in a gym, even when the band is in tune. Dancers cannot dance on a gym floor - the gym floor is waxed. It has also been suggested that we perform in college buildings. Well, they are exactly that. College buildings. University performances take priority over community ones, and we would have to pay to use Central's buildings. We get Morgan for free. We wouldn't get Central, and we'd have to schedule our concerts around theirs. It's not a fair trade.
As of yesterday, the Morgan Middle School auditorium was shut down because of safety reasons. It was found that neither the rigging nor the fire curtain met standards, and because the cost of replacing both would be over $26,000, they closed down the auditorium until further notice. The fate of the auditorium, an of the middle school, has not yet been decided. If they tear down the middle school, and rebuild it without an auditorium, the arts programs in this community will suffer. They are already suffering. This could be the death knell for several extremely good programs.
Support your local arts programs. If you take them for granted for even a minute, you'll never know if they'll appear again.
As a friend of mine said: "There is no way we can win this fight without the help of
everyone who cares. Remember, one voice singing in the dark can cause the world to sing along."
Ellensburg has a significant number of arts programs. There are five bands (concert and jazz) at the middle school and four (concert and jazz) at the high school, three choirs at the middle school and four (concert and jazz) at the high school. The community puts on two major musicals a year: one by the high school (the winter musical) and one by the community (the summer musical). Our dance program (not part of the school) does almost their performances in the middle school auditorium. The annual talent show is held in the middle school auditorium. And the school board, our school board, means to tear it down and not replace it. What does this mean? It means our arts programs will suffer drastically. The musicals won't happen. The dance program will suffer. Those non-musicians on the school board says we can play and perform in the gym. Well, as any musician knows, auditoriums and performance halls are specifically designed to channel sound. In a gym, the sound will dissipate. It sounds horrible when you play in a gym, even when the band is in tune. Dancers cannot dance on a gym floor - the gym floor is waxed. It has also been suggested that we perform in college buildings. Well, they are exactly that. College buildings. University performances take priority over community ones, and we would have to pay to use Central's buildings. We get Morgan for free. We wouldn't get Central, and we'd have to schedule our concerts around theirs. It's not a fair trade.
As of yesterday, the Morgan Middle School auditorium was shut down because of safety reasons. It was found that neither the rigging nor the fire curtain met standards, and because the cost of replacing both would be over $26,000, they closed down the auditorium until further notice. The fate of the auditorium, an of the middle school, has not yet been decided. If they tear down the middle school, and rebuild it without an auditorium, the arts programs in this community will suffer. They are already suffering. This could be the death knell for several extremely good programs.
Support your local arts programs. If you take them for granted for even a minute, you'll never know if they'll appear again.
As a friend of mine said: "There is no way we can win this fight without the help of
everyone who cares. Remember, one voice singing in the dark can cause the world to sing along."