Arts Center garners major gift
A patron, whose donation will go toward a new building, will also help purchase art for the Chihuly Collection.
By LENNIE BENNETT
Published August 16, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG - Beth Morean, a local philanthropist and longtime supporter of the Arts Center, has given the lead gift for the center's new $20-million building that will be named the Beth Ann Morean Arts Center.
"It's a long-term pledge of $10.2-million, but we don't want people to think it's paid for at this time," Morean said.
Evelyn Craft, executive director, said that with Morean's gift, the center is more than half way to its fundraising goal.
In addition, Morean is joining developer Jimmy Aviram in purchasing more than $6-million in art that will stock the adjacent Chihuly Collection at the Arts Center, a museum-quality gallery of art by Dale Chihuly, an internationally famous glass artist.
The comprehensive collection of his work will be the only one of its kind in the world.
"Dale Chihuly through his commitment to arts education is letting us do something that has never been done before," Morean said. "And I'm excited the Arts Center will be able to serve the community for generations."
Morean, her brother, William Morean, and their mother, Audrey Peterson, are principal stockholders in Jabil Circuit Inc.. In 1999, she gave $1.2-million to the Arts Center for the renovation of its current site at 719 Central Ave.
"Beth Morean gets the credit for stepping up and making a commitment early on to help make a new Arts Center and Chihuly Collection possible," said Craft, whose center will administer the collection. "There was a lot of healthy skepticism about it, including mine. I thought it was a great idea, but I didn't know how we would pay for it."
The Arts Center has grown in less than a decade from offering studio art classes for about 3,000 adults and children annually to serving more than 30,000. It has outgrown its current space at 719 Central Ave., where parking is limited and many classes have waiting lists.
Aviram heads up the project that will use the Chihuly Collection and a new Arts Center as the centerpieces of a residential development on two blocks between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Eighth Streets and First Avenues N and S and is expected to cost between $150-million and $200-million. The development has a projected opening of January 2008.
Chihuly himself will be in town today for book signing and a news conference with Morean, Aviram and Craft to announce his participation in what he hopes will be one of the premier community-based arts education facilities in the southeastern United States.
Along with the Chihuly collection and studio classes in all media, the Arts Center will build a Glass House with an auditorium for glass-blowing demonstrations and studios for master glass artists. The Glass House is expected to attract both the cultural tourist, Craft said, as well as seasoned artists who will produce new art and teach.
--Lennie Bennett can be reached at 727 893-8293 or lennie@sptimes.com