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Silver gives to city arts group
Silver makes big gift to local arts group
BY EMILY BATTLE
Date published: 1/3/2008
BY EMILY BATTLE
The Silver Cos. are giving $500,000 to an arts organization led by a man who fought hard against Celebrate Virginia nearly 10 years ago.
Silver announced yesterday that it will give a $500,000 endowment to the Fredericksburg Athenaeum, a nonprofit arts group that owns the Wounded Bookshop on Amelia Street and the Third Floor at 810 Caroline St.
Athenaeum is run by Paul Lewis, who helped found Rappahannock Area Grassroots in 1998.
That group was formed after the City Council approved the rezoning for Celebrate Virginia, and once tried to recall the council members who voted for that rezoning.
A release from the Silver Cos. said the gift came about because Lewis approached the developer shortly after it announced that Wisconsin-based Kalahari Resorts was going to build a waterpark hotel on 49 acres in Celebrate Virginia.
Jud Honaker, president of commercial development for Silver, said the company sees the gift as "an investment in the downtown."
"We've always felt the success of Celebrate Virginia was dependent on the success of downtown," Honaker said.
He said he hopes Athenaeum will use the money to create arts-focused events downtown that will create more activity there in the evenings.
The hope is that those activities will get people downtown after 5 p.m., giving shop owners a reason to keep their businesses open later.
"We consider it a very important part of balancing downtown with this commercial district, and we think the arts community is a very important part of that," Lewis said in a telephone message yesterday.
The gift comes as Silver is in talks with the city about incentives to bring Kalahari to Fredericksburg and a proposed grant to help bolster the Fredericksburg Expo Center's operations.
During the discussions of the Expo Center grant, when City Council members asked Expo owner Tom Ballantine whether he encourages convention attendees to visit downtown, he said he has provided transportation to get them there after conferences let out.
But Ballantine said they have often found most establishments closed by that time.
Mayor Tom Tomzak and Honaker have both said that a transportation link between downtown and Celebrate Virginia will be key to connecting the two very different tourist attractions.
Tom Smith, a member of the Downtown Retail Marketing Inc. merchants' group, agrees.
He said yesterday that he had not heard about the Athenaeum gift, but that Silver had invited him and several other downtown business people to talk about downtown's relationship with Celebrate Virginia over breakfast this morning.
"People downtown want to hear about how all this could potentially impact them," Smith said. "Everybody's in a fact-finding mode right now."
As for what you're likely to see happen as a result of the gift, Lewis hasn't figured that out just yet.
"We are going to spend the next month or two exploring with the arts community how best to use those funds through the Athenaeum," Lewis said. "Not a lot will change in the kind of focus that we've had as an arts catalyst locally."
Emily Battle: 540/374-5413
Email: ebattle@freelancestar.com
Read more stories about Fredericksburg
Date published: 1/3/2008
Most recent reader comments:
A Community Gift
(posted by
plewis
, Jan. 4, 2008 11:32 am)
With this kind of investment, we can support many Fredericksburg artists, fund more community
programs and make our projects more accessible to all residents and visitors. The Athenaeum has
sponsored or hosted scores of art, community and cultural events, and engaged thousands of
residents and visitors over the last five years. The Silver Cos. deserve great credit for acknowledging
the value of the work artists perform daily on behalf of this community.
Thanks, Silver Co. for Supporting the Arts
(posted by
thelama
, Jan. 3, 2008 7:50 pm)
Too often people criticize the Silver Cos., and while some of their past dealings have been perhaps clumsy, the City and Region have benefited as a result. This contribution to the arts is the latest in a long list of benefits that the Silver Co. has produced. They should be commended for their actions!
WOW! CONGRATS TO ALL!
(posted by
THOS
, Jan. 3, 2008 2:14 pm)
Who would have guessed? I think this is VERY positive. It
proves it doesn't always have to be "us vs. them" and that
incentives can lead to positive outcomes. It was gutsy for
Lewis to ask Silver to promote the arts, it was wonderful
they both put past grudges or differences aside and it was
awesome for Silver to respond so generously. Downtown
IS an investment, the local arts is worth it, and this is just a
great positive story. Let's hope others see the value in
promoting downtown through the arts.
Think harder
(posted by
realitystory
, Jan. 3, 2008 12:46 pm)
Isn't it obvious? Silver sees Fredericksburg as a better
attraction with a strong arts community downtown.
Fredericksburg as a better attraction means better business for
Celebrate VA. Pretty simple.
That's nice...
(posted by
Chris.ology
, Jan. 3, 2008 8:11 am)
He must want something from the city, we just haven't figured that out yet.
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