"Worlds greatest city of the arts and outdoors" living up to its name

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Story Published: Aug 23, 2007 at 7:54 AM PST

By Elissa Harrington

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DOWNTOWN EUGENE - Eugene has picked up the motto "World's greatest city of the arts and outdoors." City leaders are trying to figure out if it's living up to its name.

Today the City of Eugene got a report card in the arts. The cultural policy review was better than most years but it creativity still has room to grow.

Wednesday, officials looked over an annual report for the arts. Required number of productions? Check! High number of attendees?Check! Good economic impact? Big check! In fact, according to today's spreadsheet, performing arts pulled in more than 6 million dollars last year.

A highlight in today's meeting was The Hult Center, which is just about to have its 25th birthday.

"I think the vision of bringing a performing arts center here 25 years ago has been realized," says Laura Niles of the Cultural Policy Committee. "I think we're very fortunate in our community to have professional artists that can do opera to symphony to theatre and dance."

Events like the Bach Festival also bring in loads of tourists. With at least 200 performances each year, the Hult Center is hardly in crisis.

After all these years, successful productions of plays, concerts, and even High School Graduations have made the Hult Center a shining jewel for local arts and culture but there are some challenges on the horizon.

The main focus of the future is local youth. "We like to think everything we do has some sort of youth component," says Niles. "These are future administrators, musicians and performers."

The Hult Center is holding a Youth Event this weekend and the cultural services committee says for the future they would like more funding.

Not everything got high marks. The review did say the Hult Center needs to be more aggressive in booking events.

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