Carolina Crown Performing Arts Training Center

[drumelloboe]

I feel like many just watched the video and didn't read. This facility isn't so the corps can have a nice place for camps and all-days. It's for making the performing arts an activity available to students of all ages, skill levels, and incomes.

From their page:

The Plan

“The Carolina Crown Performing Arts Training Center”

- Build a training facility for young performers of all ages, ethnicities and economic backgrounds to attend and receive the highest possible education.

- Provide individual lessons to nurture and advance their abilities.

- Provide the best instruments and equipment available for them to use.

- Have the ability to educate, feed and house all in one building.

- Give individuals, schools and national touring companies the ability to use state of the art multi-purpose rehearsal space.

- Have a theater large enough to hold concerts and recitals.

Sounds like it would be pretty community-aimed to me.

Edited January 15, 2010 by drumelloboe

[bawker]

I am simply amazed at the negativity that is displayed here, and on some other threads.

Yet I knew it was going to happen.

I challenge each of you that has gone negative in these threads to put your energy to good use.

Vote for the charity that captures your attention.

After this campaign is over, I would also challenge each of the same people to contact their nearest drum corps and offer there assistance. And if it's not a drum corps, then the nearest non-profit that you deem worthy.

Believe me, Drum Corps and other charities will welcome you and put you to work based upon your abilities.

Maybe this whole Chase campaign has awakened alot of folks to the fact they indeed need to do more,

not just drum corps but other very worthy charities.

Come on folks, put your energy to good use.

Make a positive difference.

Well, look at it this way: can you even begin to start construction on any kind of arts center for one million dollars, factoring in land, permits, construction, and everything else? Isn't that a legitimate question?

I am also amazed that "negativity" is defined by some (perhaps not you, specifically) as voting for something other than what amounts to an optional summer marching band, when, to use one example, cancer affects more people than marching band ever will.

. . .and, perhaps, just maybe, some of us give to and volunteer with St. Judes, the ACS, the Komen organization, and other organizations already and see results in research breakthroughs, sick kids faces and a genuine appreciation for our donation.

Anyway, I agree with your post for the most part . . .but let's not confuse people asking questions about where the money goes as some sort of negative railing on drum corps.

I think if people are going to vote, and decide where those dollars go, they want to be informed . . .and that may require more than just a short video or bullet point explanation.

Personally, after some thought and a discussion with my wife, I voted for all four drum corps and the Komen organization, as I lost my mother to breast cancer last year.

[Kamarag]

Well, look at it this way: can you could even begin to start construction on any kind of arts center for one million dollars, factoring in land, permits, construction, and everything else? Isn't that a legitimate question?

It's a great question actually. Crown says the $1 million would be used as "seed money". Anyone with a basic understanding of economics and large-scale capital fundraising knows that it's easier to raise money when you have money. In this case, having a million dollar seed will make it pretty easy to raise the rest, via loan or corporate donation/sponsorship.

[bawker]

Anyone with a basic understanding of economics and large-scale capital fundraising knows that it's easier to raise money when you have money.

Absolutely it is.

However, think about someone who doesn't have the benefit of being on the inside looking out regarding fund-raising.

Plenty of us on this board, have, in one fashion or another, been part of a group (drum corps or otherwise) that has raised money for everything from uniforms to cook trucks to homeless shelters to whatever else.

If I'm just your average Facebook/DCP user (perhaps a person who may have marched and didn't have to consider the larger questions of fund raising for various reasons, or someone who only knows about drum corps indirectly, via a niece or nephew that marched or a friend), I think some questions are pointed towards trying to get an understanding of the nuts and bolts, not as an attack on the org.

[euponitone]

I really wanted to hold off and respond till after the voting, but I cannot!

You should have waited...

[dbc03]

Personally I think a performing arts center is a great idea.

Just not as great as a lot of the other ideas that are in the running for the money

[Cache_Money]

You know, instead of thinking Crown should somehow be responsible for donating funds to other corps who can't find their own money, fans should be asking what Crown has done in the last twenty years to get where they are so the struggling corps has a model to follow.

Giving any of their potential winnings to other drum corps would be one of the worst things they could do.

Well said!

[Cache_Money]

I really wanted to hold off and respond till after the voting, but I cannot! This is the most ridiculous idea I have heard in Drum Corps...or perhaps seeing the video on the Chase website just was completely in-adequate! Infuriating! Who is going to buy into this idea and why would Chase? This is a money pit of a concept...who is going to use it when the camps are not going on...why does it have to look like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts? I just think this is a poorly strategized concept which makes drum corps look incredibly bad and poor business people. Simply ridiculous. I was going to be a fan of CC after watching them for the last several years...this is not happening.

Quite honestly, there is not a good concept offered by the other drum corps in the competition either. I mean, be specific, give us a long range strategy for how the funding will be used and multiplied over a 50 year period...instead we sit on the turf and talk about buddies and cry about the experiences we had. Perhaps that is great, but what makes the difference to anyone who has never been involved. This activity is so self indulged and this situation is such a prime example. After being a drum corps fan for 21 years...I might find something else to vote for.

You were "going to be a fan of CC" but now you're not, since they entered into a contest to win a $1,000,000 grant to further music education in their community?

Really? Really?

[2000Cadet]

You were "going to be a fan of CC" but now you're not, since they entered into a contest to win a $1,000,000 grant to further music education in their community?

Really? Really?

Apparently.

[euphononium]

I am a band director in the area of Crown and I would be one of the first if not the first to line up to use this facility. I would love to use it during the winter seasons because currently our guard and drumline practice in less then adequate facilities. I would even consider holding band camp there to get away from distractions at the high school and also to be able to utilize multiple fields as opposed to just one.

I'm not sure but I doubt the GWU is being used for free and with this facility that would free up that money which they could use to help out corps members or use in a benificial way as well.

Crown has been very advantageous in helping the local area schools and is continuing to reach out in anyway possible. Crown has loaned out instruments to numerous schools that need them.

I'm not sure that the reason you see the Kennedy Center picture is just because that is a picture we can all relate to.

I do encourage everyone to vote with their heart and the way they feel lead. I for one will vote for all of the corps because I have seen first hand what drum corps have done for the youth in our country. I think that it instills the discipline, charachter and life skills that they need later in life. I think it's the next closest thing to someone going into the military. I get a sense of some of the values of what I see in soldiers, I see to a degree in drum corps but on a lower level. The students are respectful and very hard working which is what I've aways seen in our service men and women.

I really like the idea, too..

1. Where's the rest of the money going to come from? Materials for this place alone will cost well over $1MM. Have plans already been made for a massive funds campaign? Have local businesses and band programs been contacted to help contribute?

2. I can't see how Crown is going to build this place and then all of a sudden offer all of the building's services for free. That is poor business and poor planning. Who's going to pay for electric, water, heat, air conditioning, unclogging toilets, etc? The cost will have to trickle down to somebody, whether it be an increase in tuition for those that participate in all of Crown's programs, or the other groups using the facility in the form of rental fees.

I'm a little worried this will just turn into a year-round situation like that of WGI weekend. Anyone who has been there in the last 5 years knows that rehearsal space is prime real estate. Schools in the area use this to their advantage and charge large amounts of money to rent out their gyms hourly. So.. is this really going to be a facility for the community or is the community going to end up just having to spend more money they don't have on the arts?