Let's talk about some of the accomplishments that arts organizations were proudest of in 2001:

        • Cincinnati Opera counted visitors from 34 states, doing its part for cultural tourism as it played to 95 percent capacity. The company announced it would follow adventurous work like Robert Lepage's Bluebeard's Castle/Erwartung with even more adventurous work in 2002 — the first U.S. premiere of Dead Man Walking outside of California. Fredericka von Stade will perform.

        • Cincinnati Ballet made its first international appearance (in Portugal) in November.

        • Cincinnati Art Museum scored record attendance (301,647) with a boost from the final month of the U.S. premiere of European Masterpieces.

        • Playhouse in the Park launched new alternative performance series alteractive that has featured national names including David Cale and Tim Miller.

        • Contemporary Arts Center broke ground for its new Zaha Hadid-designed museum at the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets.

        • Ensemble Theatre had a hit with the regional premiere of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a sell-out in Over-the-Rhine just weeks after the April civil unrest.

        • The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra welcomed Paavo Jarvi, its 12th music director, in September.

        • Playhouse had impressive out-of-town openings: Rosenthal New Play Prize winner Dead-Eye Boy had an off-Broadway run, and Nixon's Nixon played London's West End.

        • With free summer-long admission, Cincinnati Art Museum had its highest summer attendance ever (55,585) and was given or promised more than 300 objects for the permanent collection in conjunction with Treasures for a Queen: A Millennium Gift to Cincinnati.

        • A dozen theater and dance companies called a few square blocks of downtown Cincinnati home in 2001, enlivening city nights. Five years ago, that number was six.

        • Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival debuted a seven-member Young Company.

        • The Taft Museum of Art embarked on a major renovation and expansion.

        • Cincinnati Ballet won the most diverse audience in its history with last year's spring festival, so impressing guest artist Desmond Richardson (considered by some to be the most talented African-American ballet dancer in the world) that he agreed to return this April.

        • An impromptu theater festival centered around the work of playwright Lanford Wilson and Playhouse's 20th anniversary production of Talley's Folly (which reunited most of the original creative team). Mr. Wilson traveled to Cincinnati, and new creative partnerships were forged.

        With these kinds of stats, you'd think the arts are one heck of a success story, and they are.

        But maintaining these success stories is an ongoing struggle.

        A struggle.

        The numbers are there to be counted, but nobody's adding up the score.
       

Playing a significant role

        The arts have championship seasons but aren't widely considered to be contenders. While the arts are not-for-profit, the big subsidies go to for-profit professional sports.

        Is it a terrific thing for Cincinnati to boast professional baseball and football on the riverfront? Of course it is.

        But the real impact, and even bigger potential impact, of the arts — for economic development, as a cultural signature for the nation to admire — is every bit as terrific.

        Political and corporate players, the Playhouse's Ed Stern, observes “decide we have to spend a billion on stadia because they're so important to who we are and how we're represented as a city.”

        He will happily argue that arts play just as significant a role in what a city is, how it defines itself and how it presents itself to the world.

        Here's one final number to brag about — 13. That's how many cities in the United States maintain a major symphony, ballet and opera, including Cincinnati.

        That's a strong foundation on which to build a major-league arts town.

        Maybe an official cheering section would help ...

        Speak up: Speaking of cheering, a good place to start having your voice heard comes at 4 p.m. Thursday in Cincinnati City Council Chambers at City Hall when the council's new arts and cultural tourism committee has its first meeting.

        Committee chair Jim Tarbell promises much hoopla, although details remain in flux.

        Winter dry-dock: Tim Perrino has 90 days (well, about 80 days now) to realize a long-held dream: a winter home for Showboat Majestic and a summer home for Cincinnati Young People's Theater.

        The space the managing artistic director is eyeing is the former Cinema Grill at 4990 Glenway Ave. in West Price Hill. He sees the twinned-cinema building restored to a 600-seat theater.

        Mr. Perrino says building owner Christian James gave him a three-month “window of opportunity” in late January to embark on the first step — buying the building, asking price $460,000. Mr. Perrino figures “at least'' $100,000 in renovation costs, including knocking out the wall separating the cinemas.

        No slacker, Mr. Perrino has been taking meetings at Price Hill Chili with members of city council; he's put out the call to arms for the Young People's Theater's west-side home base and to Showboat subscribers.

        If he pulls this off, “the goal is to produce as soon as possible,” Mr. Perrino says.

        He sees the Young People's Theater taking up residence in summer, having school outreach by fall and a Showboat production by this time next year, when the renovation is complete. He says there should be opportunities for other groups to use the space when the Showboat operates summers at the Public Landing.

        Mr. Perrino has wanted a winter producing space for years. In 1999, there was an attempt at dinner theater at the former Beef and Boards that didn't catch fire. Mr. Perrino first looked at the Cinema Grill space two years ago (on the same day that somebody else signed a lease).

        He likes the location at the “nexus of Westwood, Western Hills, Price Hill and South Fairmount.”

        It's Showboat country, although Mr. Perrino says Northern Kentucky is where Showboat has its biggest ticket base. Even more importantly, the neighborhood is home to 20-plus years of Young People's Theater families. “The tentacles are strong,” he says, laughing..

        In the meantime, Showboat has scheduled auditions for season opener Steel Magnolias from 7-10 p.m. next Sunday and Feb. 21. Mr. Perrino will direct. Magnolias plays April 17-May 5. For more information call the Showboat at 241-6550.

        A "Dream' job: Locally based actress Dale Hodges will join Jesus Lopez-Cobos and Cincinnati Symphony Thursday through Saturday as narrator for Mendelssohn's Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

        Ms. Hodges hasn't appeared in Dream since college and reports that she'll be reading “bits of Puck and snippets of Titania and Oberon. ... Fitting in with the music is a big new challenge.”

        She's been looking at a copy of the conductor's score and listening to a CD — that's in German. “I've been playing it. It gives me such an admiration for what a conductor does. It all happens so fast.”

        Thursday's audience can indulge in a complimentary pre-concert buffet beginning at 6:15 p.m. (concert at 7:30 p.m.) No free food Friday or Saturday, but Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival artistic director Jasson Minadakis will lead Classical Conversations at 7 p.m. both nights. (Concert at 8 p.m.)

        Tickets $12-$51, 381-3300.
       Contact Jackie Demaline by phone: 768-8530; fax: 768-8330; e-mail: jdemaline@enquirer.com.

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