Cultural District landmark too old to save: What will be Fort Worth arts center’s fate?

Nearly 70 years ago, the building that’s now Fort Worth’s Community Arts Center opened its doors with glitzy fanfare, cementing the future of the city’s west side as the Cultural District.

But the days may be numbered for the modern-style building near the intersection of Camp Bowie Boulevard and West Lancaster Avenue.

A city task force that has studied the aging building’s condition for months has determined it may be too costly to save. It is recommending demolishing the building at 1300 Gendy St. and starting fresh.

The deferred maintenance costs alone would be around $30 million, and that’s before adding upgrades to make the building compliant with regulations like the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Glenn Lewis, the task force vice chairman.

“It’s an old building, and it’s showing its age,” Lewis told the City Council last week.

The task force is recommending redeveloping the building as a “world-class cultural hub.” The specifics about what that entails aren’t known, but assistant city manager Fernando Costa referenced the nearby museums as examples of the kind of institution the redeveloped center would emulate.

The Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth are points of pride for Fort Worth and make the city a global magnet for people who appreciate the arts, he said.

The city built what’s now the Community Arts Center in 1954 to serve as a children’s and art museum. Architect Herbert Bayer designed the building.

The concrete building was the original home of the Modern Art Museum before it moved to its current location in 2001.

The Community Arts Center holds a theater space and galleries, and is home to nine arts nonprofits and five studio artists. The building has been managed by the nonprofit Arts Fort Worth since 2005, when the city converted it into the Community Arts Center.

The lease agreement between the city and the nonprofit states the city will pay $200,000 per year for maintenance, and $100,000 per year for electricity. Arts Fort Worth is responsible for the rest.

The city has not increased that figure since 2005, but Arts Fort Worth is able to petition the city to cover certain repair costs.

‘Putting our money where our mouth is’

The council will vote June 13 on whether to accept the task force’s recommendations. After that, the city will put out a request for proposals from interested developers.

The task force suggests keeping a theater space in the new building, and an incubator for emerging artists. It did not specifically mention setting aside room for gallery artists, but did recommend carving out space for the 14 existing tenants to set up shop.

While Arts Fort Worth has been a good steward of the building, the organization’s financial ability to address its upkeep may have been unrealistic, according to the task force’s research.

The city should have been paying more for upkeep from the beginning, said Wesley Kirk, a Fort Worth-based photographer and organizer with the group Support Fort Worth Art.

“Every other city, they treat their art center like a library or a community center,” he said.

Kirk also argued the city shouldn’t lose focus on the importance of the arts center as a hub for Fort Worth’s creative community.

He noted several Fort Worth theater companies got their start at the Community Arts Center, and that it’s been an important place for emerging artists to start their careers.

“Without that, there’s no other place to show your work in Fort Worth where it’s not driven by profit,” he said.

Fort Worth has only two publicly funded and managed arts facilities. Dallas, by comparison, has seven, with an additional 12 city-owned buildings managed through public-private partnerships.

Ann Zadeh, a member of the task force and former city councilwoman, said she has heard from people who point to the importance of the arts, whether it be culturally, socially or economically.

“I think some of this is putting our money where our mouth is, and actually being a partner is support of that,” she said.

Some cities use a portion of hotel taxes to fund the arts, but the city’s legal department determined Fort Worth may run into problems if challenged in court, assistant city manager Costa said.

Fort Worth funds public art using portions of gas well revenues, the general fund, and a percentage of bond funding.

The amount of money the city spends on public art is a longstanding policy question, and one the council as an elected body will have to address, Costa said.