A Proposal for the Revival of the Worcester Memorial Auditorium

On the occasion of its 75th Anniversary (1932-2007)

auditorium.jpg, image/jpeg, 405x251

I. Introduction

Nonetheless, a solid majority was highly enthusiastic, despite keen awareness of the risks involved. This led me to conclude that the political will needed to succeed with this project does exist. It might be distracted, however, by fruitless talk, such as criticizing whom or what is responsible for leaving the building idle, or picturing what we could do if only it were not a war memorial and an architectural treasure. To mobilize productive sentiment, I suggest we focus instead on how much it hurts to allow a monumental edifice at the solar plexus of our city ceaselessly to shout indifference, paralysis, and decay to the world. The Auditorium’s beauty and scale reflect so powerfully the high purposes for which it was built that even if we re-opened it, but for lesser purposes, I suspect that a sense of mediocrity and decline would persist. Therefore, I humbly propose that we fully restore this building to its original destiny. I grant that this may seem impossible, but I submit that it’s one of those impossible things that we must do anyway.

Now, I happen to be a businessperson as well as an educator and artist, so I’m as eager as anyone to get down to the kinds of research and calculations that will show what it’s going to cost, who will pay the bill, how generated income will offset expenses, and so on. In this essay, I can do no more than point to what I believe is a practical framework for thinking about this. I’m quite aware, however, that those questions will demand meticulous answers, and soon.

However, as I’ve mentioned, doubts about the building’s proper role in today’s Worcester go beyond matters of cost. Moreover, there are many who never knew or may have forgotten what that building means. Coming as I did to Worcester in 2000, it took me years to get a clue myself. Therefore, I think we need consensus on what a revived Auditorium is worth to Worcester in the first place before we can devise plans for how much to spend, what to spend it on, and how to pay for it. Precisely because of the scope of investment and risk at issue, I worry that if we don’t widely share a feeling for how the Memorial Auditorium itself informs what we ought to do with it, then money talk is more liable to revolve around what we can’t do and why, rather than around what we must do and how.

My strategy below, therefore, is first to invoke our civic responsibility to the Worcester Memorial Auditorium, and next to outline activities and organizational arrangements befitting that responsibility. Then, my general suggestions for how to capitalize and sustain this project will, I hope, make more sense as a start for gathering the political, economic, and technical resources and knowledge we need.

II. We Have an Obligation to Fulfill The Auditorium’s Destiny

TO HONOR THE SERVICE IN WAR OF HER SONS AND DAUGHTERS AND TO NOURISH IN PEACE THEIR SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE A GRATEFUL CITY ERECTED THIS BUILDING.

The dedicating language, the architecture, and the central artistic works of the Worcester Memorial Auditorium all speak as one. Consider: the builders of 1932 were faced with the most severe economic depression of modern times. They were faced with the rise of fascism and the evisceration of the idealistic promise that America’s 1917 entry into Europe’s “Great War” would put an end to all war. This was not what one would call a year of hope. Yet our city’s undaunted response was an Olympian building proclaiming that what ultimately gives indelible meaning to the sacrifice of young American life abroad is the cultivation of peace at home, moved by a commensurate spirit of sacrifice.

Leon Kroll’s mural in the Auditorium’s Memorial Hall depicts what the builders meant by “peace”: a wholehearted and loving inclusion of all ethnic groups, ages, and economic classes within shared values of personal freedom and mutual respect for human variety. I suspect that most veterans and people in military service today who pledged to “defend America’s way of life” carry an image of something very much like Kroll’s mural inside them. In this respect, I think they are no different from those who hear a call to non-military kinds of service. My point is that this building, its mural, its inscription, and its ideals, all hold some unique power to unite all of us here: across the generations, across the political spectrum, and across the diverse paths we have all taken to arrive in Worcester. That’s why the Auditorium deserves the city’s sacrifice and genius now.

III. Considerations When Imagining Potential Activities at the Auditorium

• The Auditorium was built to “nourish peace” by increasing the number and variety of people who reap all the cultural, educational, and social benefits of living in a free and diverse society. Therefore, activities should be planned to ensure the greatest possible participation by all ages, economic classes, and ethnic groups. In particular, it should convey the kind of welcome to new immigrants to Worcester that we associate with the Statue of Liberty.
• Fortunately for this goal, the local audience for cultural, educational, and social activity is ripe for expansion. Growing attendance at events such as the Latino Festival, Asian Festival, African Festival, First Night, stART on the Street, and the Summer Nationals indicate that there are thousands of people who might be enticed to participate more broadly in other cultural institutions if Worcester had more “crossover bridges” linking diverse cultural worlds. If the Auditorium served as a “universal comfort zone’’ (as do the Worcester Public Library and Elm Park) that introduced people to cultural, educational, and services organizations city-wide, then the pool of people ready to patronize these institutions, according to their individual interests, could be made to grow. Thus the Auditorium would not be one more venue competing for a fixed market, but rather a civic engine for enlarging that market to the benefit of all.
• The Auditorium should aim creatively to complement, and not compete with, programming offered by existing (or soon-to-be-existing) performance and entertainment venues such as the DCU, the renovated Poli Theater, Mechanics Hall, Tuckerman Hall, Foothills Theater, etc. Likewise, it should use events, information booths, mini-exhibits, and transportation networks to lead people from the Auditorium as a “first stop” to cultural institutions such as the Art Museum, Ecotarium, Higgins Armory, and so forth. It doesn’t surprise me that existing cultural organizations, struggling to stay afloat financially, might eye any large-scale newcomer to the field with anxiety. The solution is to create a program that will, first, emphasize activities less featured by other venues; and, second, increase the visibility of, interest in, and access to all organizations in the area.

IV. Brainstorm of Activities for the Auditorium and its Surroundings

• Quiet meditation and reflection on a public walk-in basis
• Public lectures, e.g., on war and peace in American History
• Public forums to promote understanding on controversial issues
• Reservation by groups for purposes of negotiation or mediation sessions
• Reservation for private ceremonies and receptions
• Public/private memorial services for events, individuals, anniversary dates

• Reservation for private ceremonies, parties, and receptions
• Civic receptions, inaugurations, program launchings, etc.
• A push-cart style concession for beverages, light meals, etc.
• Tables, booths, kiosks, computer terminals, etc., possibly with a paid staff person supervising volunteers, offering information and help re:
  • Cultural attractions
  • Educational institutions and programs
  • Human Services (medical, legal, social, disability-related, etc.)
  • Veterans’ Services, Info about memorial locations & events
  • Religious communities
  • Ethnic centers and communities
  • Computer-accessible information on events, etc.
  • Shopping, Dining, Entertainment, etc.
  • Housing information
  • Maps, Transportation, and Parking

• The Best of non-professional local performing arts, such as:
• College and High School Musicals/Dramas
• Choirs and other musical groups
• Ethnic traditional & contemporary arts: e.g., Ecuadorian dance, African drumming, Brazilian capoeira, and on and on (the world in Worcester!)
• Competitions among groups or individuals in various performing arts categories: vocal styles, comedy, pantomime, circus arts, dance, etc.
• Debates among college, high school, or civic groups
• Simulations of such debates on topics that were controversial in a former era of American history
• Simulations such as Model United Nations, Model U.S. Congress, Model Mass. Legislature, etc. for colleges, grades 4-12, and lifelong learners
• Re-enactments of famous trials, political conventions, other events
• Sports events and competitions – Worcester Indoor Olympics for various ages, Floor Hockey, Roller Derby (a fond memory for many, it seems!)
• Regional, National, and International Conventions and Conferences; these may include key events open to the public
• Promotional events for various categories of Worcester businesses / vendors; job, college, and career fairs; alternate venue for arts events.
• Professional one-person shows or lectures, debates, musical performances, sports exhibitions, etc. Aim them at specific targeted audiences. Invite celebrities who, although not major stars, are attractive precisely because they are not seen as often in public. Example: get humorist Dave Barry to come to Worcester to talk about his inspiration, Worcester native Robert Benchley. See the website for the Civic Auditorium in Santa Cruz, CA for an idea of what I mean www.ci.santa-cruz.ca.us/pr/civic/ Introduce the city as a whole to people who are heroes for certain ethnic groups in the city. Coordinate planning with other city venues so as to complement rather than compete.
• Designate some floor space for a play and climbing structure for young kids with seating for supervising adults & teens. Re-create, during the winter, that multigenerational United Nations that Elm Park is during the warmer months. Design structure/seating to be dismantled & stored seasonally, or in case of events that require the entire floor space.
• Reservations for large private & single-institution events

• Mini-installations highlighting major consortiums in the city and directing people to their services: Cultural Coalition, Consortium of Colleges, United Way, and so on.
• Individual institutions such as the Ecotarium could also mount special hands-on “teaser” mini-exhibits either permanently or in rotation with other organizations.
• This is another possible location for the panoply of informational, “way-finding” services suggested for the foyer area (see above)
• I recall a large alcove of sorts by a large window in which I found it easy to imagine a small café of the sort now popular in bookstores.
• Identify a few key organizations that would establish their headquarters in offices on this floor. My suggestions: First Night Worcester, the City Veterans’ Office, the City Cultural Officer & Worcester Cultural Coalition, and a center-city branch of the Tourist and Convention Bureau (I understand this HQ will soon be off Rte.146 in a new facility). These groups could not only use the Auditorium as a great base from which to advance their respective missions, but they could also provide a built-in organizational framework for administrating and designing Auditorium programs.

• Area College Film Programs could join hands to pioneer theme-based film festivals using the best of film history in ways that don’t compete with the upcoming downtown movie complex.
• Performing arts groups working with adults (Foothills Theater, Blue Pumpkin Productions, Redfeather Theatre Company, etc.) and youth (WPS, private schools, PASOW, JOMP, etc.) could collaborate to mentor a premier youth performing arts company with headquarters here. Youth would not only perform and do stagecraft, but also learn to direct and take a democratic leadership role in the entire theater operation with adult guidance. Model: See Oddfellows Playhouse in Middletown, CT: www.oddfellows.org
• Small touring productions and one-person shows could attract an intimate but sufficient audience. Performers with ethnic followings would reach out to multicultural audiences. Build new audiences!
• Pioneering “universal design” multi-sensory performances could engage artists and audiences with and without various disabilities, through cooperation with VSA Massachusetts www.vsamass.org
• Festivals for Best local filmmakers, composers, playwrights, etc.

• Portrait Artists
• Street Art Sales (I’m not imagining the dogs playing poker or the cats with big eyes, but if it came down to that, I’d rather go with funky than dead)
• Street performers – magicians, mimes, escape artists, acrobats, jugglers
• Street musicians
• Designated Sidewalk Chalk Art Space
• Push-cart vending
• Portable stage for scheduled mini-concerts
• Snow and ice sculpture contests in winter
• Soapbox Oratory

• Pioneer “Green Design” wherever possible – make this a national model of energy-conserving, recycling, and environmentally friendly technology.
• Pioneer “Universal Design” wherever possible – make this a national model for accessibility to people with the widest variety of physical impairments.
• Market a book & documentary about the renovation process itself!

V. Suggestions for Organizational & Financial Capitalization and Sustainability

So, since the inscription on the Auditorium says that “a grateful city” erected it, I propose that the city gratefully take overall responsibility for it, either by expanding the portfolio of an existing official, or by hiring someone who would report to that official. This should not in any way prevent the city from forming a consortium with a wide variety of other institutions and businesses to support personnel costs. It also need not prevent the city from contracting management functions out to one or more of the organizations that I’ve suggested might well find a happy home within the building. Coming up with the best management flow-chart and division of responsibilities is a job for many wise heads. My core proposal is to achieve that within a framework of city ownership and accountability buttressed by an extensive network of cooperating local agencies that contribute financially and managerially.

B. Three-tier model for capitalization and sustainability

Tier One: Produce Revenue through Admission & Membership Sales, Rentals, Business Promotion Fees, Concessions, and on-site fund-raisers that are fun events in themselves. Keep admission prices for events and public use of facilities (e.g., kids’ play area), low enough to attract lots of people from all walks of life and all ages. Make it a convenient location with easy vehicle and pedestrian access, ample parking and a taxi stand plus WRTA bus hub (either supplanting the hub at City Hall, or in a binary relationship with it.) Such parking and public transportation plans will need to be an integral part of the overall plan for bringing life to Lincoln Square generally. Expect these revenues to cover all annual non-personnel operating costs of the building.

Tier Two: Form what may admittedly be an unprecedented coalition of colleges, cultural institutions, human service agencies, churches, and other relatively large, property-owning non-profit organizations in Worcester (perhaps joined by those in surrounding towns as well). Engage them in a partnership that benefits them by providing a central location where residents and visitors alike can learn about and be directed to their services.

Further, make the Auditorium a primary place through which these organizations can advance their respective missions. Their students, faculty, congregations, clients, and members can, through the Auditorium, reach a city-wide audience with their talents, learn through involvement in management and program planning, and otherwise advance their development as educated, respected, and socially experienced individuals. Ask all these agencies to incorporate support of the Auditorium into their respective budgets and fund-raising efforts, and to work with the city in pooling development efforts aimed at funding the building. Make it clear that as far as the city is concerned, such contributions will put an end to “Payments In Lieu of Taxes” as a political football. Expect these annual contributions to cover all personnel costs associated with sustaining a revived Auditorium.

For this coalition-building effort to succeed, we must be ready to re-invest the Auditorium with the central role in our civic and cultural consciousness that was envisioned by its founders. The Auditorium has no equal in our region as a rallying call to honor all those who have died in wars abroad by devoting our own lives to the building of peaceful, just, and free relationships among all our diverse people here at home, thereby laying a foundation for peace among the peoples of the world. The city bears initial and final responsibility for articulating and re-acknowledging this original truth, in the face of this monument’s recent dormancy. I believe the people of this city, whatever they may think about more recent foreign wars in which these “sons and daughters” died, will heed the summons “to nourish in peace their spirit of sacrifice.” I think nearly all will see that the time is ripe to awaken this sleeping giant.

Tier Three: Capitalization Chronologically, it makes sense to discuss getting the building back in shape and ready to roll before talking about how to sustain it. Psychologically, however, I think that having a clear plan for sustainability is essential to justifying and raising the millions it will take to restore operations. At this level, I see no substitute for combined municipal, state, and even federal government appropriations supported by appeals to major foundations and corporations. Fortunately, I can think of harder things to sell than the revival of a major war memorial at a time when thoughts of war and peace are uppermost in our national consciousness. When I think of what billions of dollars are spent on these days, I have no doubt that this is one earmark that many would see as more than mere pork. It then becomes a question of political tenacity and clout to secure government assistance, and a matter of good grant-writing and sales acumen to secure foundation and business support.

I think Worcester is in a better position than it has been in previous years to take on this challenge at the governmental level. As for foundation and corporate sources, if these funds are highly competitive, well then, let’s pull up our socks and compete. To do so, let’s hone our plans and our research regarding sustainability (Tiers One and Two) not only so that our Tier Three proposals become more attractive, but also so that we do wind up giving our investors a very good return on their dollar in civic and social terms.

VI. Conclusion

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