Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts Light Up the Arts Gala a tremendous success

On Sept. 10, downtown Winston-Salem was transformed into the center of the arts universe, and the hundreds in attendance orbited around the star of the show — the 78,000 square foot arts complex known as the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts.

Siohban Olson, co-chair of the Center’s opening celebration, estimated that 1,800 people attended the Light Up the Arts Gala with Tony Bennett. Dignitaries in attendance included Broadway producer and National Endowment for the Arts chair Rocco Landesman, US Sen. Richard Burr, US Rep. Mel Watt, Gov. Beverly Purdue, Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines, NC Rep. Larry Womble, NC Sen. Linda Garrou, as well as a number of local and state elected officials.Of the 1,800 attendees, approximately 1,200 attended Tony Bennett's performance at the Stevens Center.

Bennett mesmerized the Stevens Center audience for more than two hours, belting out signature tunes like "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and his famous cover of the Hank Williams' classic, "Cold, cold heart." Bennett's daughter, Antonia, opened the concert with five selections from the great American songbook.

Meanwhile back at the arts center, patrons were entertained by the No Rules Theatre Company, a Washington, DC-based company composed of UNC School of the Arts graduates who performed a vignette from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown utilizing the room’s “Romeo and Juliet” balcony. In the spirit of the evening and the space, the UNCSA School of Drama performed scenes from Romeo & Juliet and West Side Story. During Community Weekend Sept. 11-12, the UNCSA School of Design and Production demonstrated their motion control project as design students invite visitors to fly like Peter Pan through Reynolds Place.

During the Light Up the Arts Gala, visitors got to see the newly renovated Sawtooth School, which comprises 20,000 square feet of space within the arts complex. Visitors also experienced Reynolds Place, a versatile event and meeting space, the Womble Carlyle Gallery with its first exhibition — “Opening Acts” by the Piedmont Craftsmen. The crown jewel of the new center is the Hanesbrands Theatre, which offers all the amenities of a Broadway venue, but the versatility of a black box theater. The inaugural show at Hanesbrands — "Bouncers" — represents a bit of a homecoming for the play's director, Mark Woods.

In 1977, Woods co-founded the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, which made its permanent home the High Point Theatre. Seven years later, Woods founded Charlotte’s Repertory Theatre, the Queen City’s resident professional theatre. Woods was humbled that "Bouncers" was selected as the show to christen the Hanesbrands Theatre.

"All the dreams that ever came true for me were watered by people in this community," Woods said.

Olson credited Rhodes with the vision for the downtown arts center, and the passion and persistence to make it a reality during one of the worst times in the nation's economic history. Rhodes spearheaded a three-year fundraising campaign that raised an astounding $26 million to help build the new arts center. The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County began raising money three years ago as part of the comprehensive campaign for the arts, which included money to renovate the complex. So when it came time to name the venue, there was no debate, Olson said.

Rhodes served as president of the Arts Council from 1971-1985 and returned to the post in 2004. Rhodes was formerly the president and CEO of the American Council for the Arts, now known as Americans for the Arts —the nation’s leading nonprofit organization advancing the arts.

After the Tony Bennett concert concluded on Sept. 10, arts patrons walked back down Marshall Street as the party kept going inside the Hanesbrands Theatre. The late night discotheque kicked off at 10 p.m. and the space was transformed into downtown's hottest new nightclub. The music thumped and revelers stomped into the wee hours of the morning. A few hours later, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on the steps of the new arts center, marking the beginning of Community Weekend, which featured more than 135 arts and cultural experiences under one roof over the course of two days.

Arts organizations involved in the Community Weekend celebration include: Associated Artists, Delta Fine Arts, Kernersville Little Theatre, Piedmont Chamber Singers, Piedmont Opera, A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, Piedmont Wind Quartet, Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Twin City Stage, Children's Theatre of Winston-Salem, Winston-Salem Symphony, Winston-Salem Youth Chorus, Bookmarks Book Festival, Children's Museum of Winston-Salem, Old Salem Museums and Gardens, The Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble, Authoring Action, Arts-Based Elementary School, Arts for Life North Carolina, Winston-Salem State University Diggs Gallery, The Healing Force, Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, Burke Singers, Forsyth Community Band Festival, Giannini Brass, Piedmont Slam, Three Graces Entertainment, StoryLine, Flutes on Fourth, Joe Robinson, RiverRun International Film Festival, and more. And best of all, the events were open and free to the public.

The opening of the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts was truly a community event, and undoubtedly one of the biggest arts event in the area's rich history. The Light Up the Arts Gala surpassed all expectations, and everything down to the smallest detail was executed with style, grace and class. This was an evening to remember, and the new arts center's namesake eloquently placed the event in its proper context.

“Arts are a way of expressing our human condition,” Milton Rhodes said. “The challenge is the arts have a connotation of being elitist, but the truth is it’s part of everybody’s metabolism.”