PORT ANGELES — The opening date for Field Arts & Events Hall is real and it is July 29.
Executive director Steven Raider-Ginsburg’s announcement drew applause from attendees at the Port Angeles Business Association’s weekly meeting Tuesday.
“After a number of years of vision and really hard work, this is when we’re really walking the fire to get there through the next few months,” he said.
A year ago, project organizers anticipated a May 2023 opening for the 41,000-square-foot venue. That was after a 2018 estimate of an early 2021 opening date.
And that was before COVID-19 slowed down and then stopped construction, added $6.2 million to the construction cost and “ran funding off the cliff,” said Brooke Taylor, Field Hall board chairman.
The price tag is now about $56 million.
Raider-Ginsburg said individuals had contributed $37,500,000 toward construction and he couldn’t emphasize enough the community’s generosity in making the project happen.
“That far outshines what any government entity has done,” he said. “Not even 10 percent of our funds come from larger sources.”
The business community had continued to be an important partner and central to the organization’s mission of contributing to the local economy, Raider-Ginsburg said. Out of every dollar spent at Field Hall, 37 cents would go to the organization and 63 cents would go to downtown businesses.
Field Hall will eventually share its site on the Port Angeles waterfront with a Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe cultural center and the Marine Discovery Center (which will replace the Feiro Marine Life Center facility on the City Pier). The Port Angeles Waterfront Center is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit.
“I challenge any of you to look around the country and see if you can find a cohesive site that has arts, culture and science like we will have here,” Raider-Ginsburg said. “If you transport yourself back to fourth grade, wouldn’t this be an awesome field trip?”
Field Hall is already booking private events ahead of its grand opening, including a family reunion, a wedding and a bar mitzvah.
Ginsburg said he is having conversations with a number of performers and is in the process of trying to secure dates for, among others, Lyle Lovett, Ruth Moody, Sammy Miller and The Congregation, and the Vienna Boys Choir.
Field Hall is still seeking sponsors for its July 29 grand opening that it estimates will attract more than 10,000 people and feature food, live music and a performance by the Bandaloop dance company, which will perform on the side — yes, the side — of Field Hall.
While continuing to fundraise for both construction and completion costs, Raider-Ginsburg said Field Hall is also building up its endowment, which now stands at about $3 million. The endowment was seeded with a $2 million bequest from Dorothy Field, who purchased the parcel of land on which the Field Hall campus sits and donated it to the organization.
Original funding for Field Hall came from a bequest of $9.1 million from Donna Morris for the construction of a performing arts center.
Raider-Ginsburg said Field Hall should be fully staffed on July 1 — the date its box office opens — with 35 full-time, part-time and contract employees.
Moving forward, he said, its operating budget would be about $2 million a year and be offset with ticket sales, food and beverage revenue, facility rentals and donations.
He said he wanted Field Hall to be a gathering place for the community and offer a wide variety of activities that just about anyone could enjoy from morning to night.
“It’s where you can have a cup of coffee at 8 a.m., then listen to a piano concert in the lobby, the library will offer a story time and there will be ticketed events in the evening,” he said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@soundpublishing.com.
