At 20, Mesa Arts Center looks to future

Jun. 9—As the Mesa Arts Center prepares for its 20th season of live performances, supporters still reflect on the big gamble city residents took over two decades ago when they committed to an "arts campus" in the heart of downtown.

Paid for with $90 million from a temporary quality of life sales tax and over $5 million in private donations, MAC's formal opening in 2005 culminated years of planning forged by its supporters' passion not only for the arts but also for the city.

Combining four theaters, five visual arts galleries, 14 classrooms and a small shop, the 210,000-square-foot center replaced Mesa's previous home for arts programs — a historic school building that the city converted for such programming in the 1980s but has since returned it to Mesa Public Schools.

Former councilman Dennis Kavanaugh — an ardent champion of the arts — recalled that in the 1990s, the Chandler Arts Center had opened and some Mesa-based performance groups, like the Southwest Shakespeare Company, started performing there.

That created some civic-driven "jealousy" and the sense that Mesa needed its own world-class performance venue.

Boosters also hoped the MAC would help energize downtown.

"The sidewalks along Main Street are deserted at night," The Tribune wrote on the eve of the art center's opening in 2005. "The area lacks restaurants, trendy shops and entertainment venues. Blight and decay threaten downtown residential and commercial areas."

Some state legislators predicted Mesa Arts Center would be a boondoggle.

Mike Elliott, who chaired the MAC's private fundraising committee, said some people told him it was "dumb to have a fancy art center in downtown Mesa."

But by many accounts, the downtown arts campus has been a triumph, boosting the city's cultural scene and fueling downtown Mesa's transformation.

"There is cool stuff moving in like gangbusters," said northeast Mesa resident Krish Chuchman, who volunteers at the Arizona Museum of Natural History and has been attending shows at the MAC for 15 years.

"There's places to eat down there," she added, "and they don't close at 6 p.m."

A bartender at 12 West Brewing told the Tribune that the place is packed before shows at the MAC and Mesa Amphitheater as people stop in for drinks or dinner before or after a show.

For arts supporters, the facility is a "treasure" that creates connections among residents.

"I have anywhere from 16-year-old kids with autism all the way up to 90-year-olds in class," said sculptor Matt Smith, who has taught art classes at the MAC for 15 years.

Smith talks fondly of the friendships created in classes, as students go together to eat in downtown Mesa after class.

"It has become a gathering place, which was always the concept," Elliott said of the Mesa Arts Center.

Twenty years on, the MAC is humming.

Its art classes are full, Smith said, and the theaters remain in demand among top traveling and local theater groups. The contemporary art galleries host visual artists from near and far.

The lineup for the MAC's 20th live performance season is a testament to its strength as a venue: Dave Koz and violinist Itzhak Perlman are returning, and up-and-coming jazz singer Samara Joy is debuting, among a few highlights.

At a season kickoff in April, Director of Theaters Randy Vogel announced that for the first time, the MAC would be the sole presenter for three Broadway shows: "Dear Evan Hansen," "The Cher Show" and "Come From Away."

At age 20, the MAC's model of an arts complex still looks fresh and innovative, with comparable facilities in the U.S. difficult to find.

Many praised the concept of combining various arts facilities on one campus.

"There is cross pollination," Kavanaugh said. "People taking a welding class might be enticed to come to a symphony. You have a whole variety of activities going on almost every day all year."

Smith agreed the campus creates synergy. He said he's collaborated with theater groups to create sets for performances and built sculptures for various events on campus.

Its supporters also still praise MAC's architecture, pointing to the fact that it has stood the test of time.

"I still think it's beautiful," said Joanie Flatt, who ran a public relations firm in Mesa that helped pass the quality of life tax. She later served on the architecture and design committee, and then on the foundation that oversees the city's administration of the center.

Flatt recalled the first meeting with the architect, who asked about the committee's vision.

"I remember saying to him, 'when someone stands on the corner of Main Street and Center, I want them to look up and say, "Wow!" with total awe in their voices,' and that's what we all wanted," Flatt said.

Kavanaugh said there was disagreement about putting the MAC at those cross streets, as the city had to acquire the land; some thought it should go on existing city property, like Site 17, the still-empty 25-acre parcel near Mesa and University drives.

But in the end, supporters and city officials decided there should be "arts in Mesa's heart," as the motto for the ballot measure went.

Flatt said the involvement of the committee in the MAC's design contributed to its success.

The priorities for the physical buildings were guided by the needs of the local arts community, Kavanaugh and Flatt said. Consequently, committee members fought against certain compromises that bureaucrats might have conceded.

"It wasn't a top-down kind of thing," Flatt said.

Elliott said special attention was put on backstage amenities like green rooms, which has helped to attract traveling artists over the years.

"All the performers love them," he said.

Flatt said the committee was careful not to skimp on the quality of the performance spaces and equipment.

Smith marvels that the quality of the tools available to art students at the MAC bests those at local universities.

Vogel said one of his most memorable performances at the MAC from the past 20 years was the Chicago Symphony because it demonstrated the incredible quality of the theater's acoustics.

"You could hear a pin drop," he said.

One design feature that Flatt is particularly proud of is the women's restrooms.

"I got the nickname of the 'potty police' during the design process. I said to the architects, 'I want this to be the first performing arts venue in the country where women aren't stuck in lines outside the restrooms," Flatts said.

"We probably have the most efficient women's restrooms of any performing arts venue that you will ever visit," she said. "That puts a smile on my face every time I go there."

In many ways, the opening of the MAC 20 years ago defied expectations of Mesa at the time: that it was a sleepy community skeptical of taxes, culture and philanthropic giving outside of churches.

But on all fronts, residents stepped up to make the Mesa Arts Center happen. The private donations included $1 million from Tom and Janet Ikeda, the namesake of the MAC's grand 1,600-seat theater.

"They weren't solicited," Flatt said. "They walked in and said 'tell us about your campaign.'"

Many involved in the creation of the MAC said its launch and success stems from the authentic participation of Mesa residents.

Kavanaugh emphasized that the idea of the MAC is based on the program in the Old Irving School. The MAC took an existing successful concept and put it on "super steroids," he said, adding:

"The passion that was ignited by the creation of the old Mesa Arts Center continued to be a positive driving force."