The Shubert's Next Stage

During the 2004 session, the legislature became embroiled in a gay-marriage amendment and a bonding bill was never passed. But by then, Motes’s arts education program was attracting the attention of legislators from Greater Minnesota. A year earlier, U.S. Congressman Martin Sabo and U.S. Senator Norm Coleman had secured $200,000 in U.S. Department of Education money for Motes to set up the program, which uses videoconferencing and other Internet technologies to bring performing artists into classrooms around the state and create interactive, real-time teaching environments. As part of their routine bonding tours to view proposed projects statewide, legislators and the governor toured the Shubert and watched the education program in action at the Hennepin Center.

State Representative Kurt Zellers, a Republican from Maple Grove and the Shubert bill’s chief author in the house, says the program “struck home with me. I grew up on a farm in North Dakota, so the opportunities I had were pretty limited when it came to watching an opera or getting a lesson from a concert pianist. This program helps kids to think and see beyond their boundaries. What better use of assets and education opportunities is there?”

Artspace was now positioning the Shubert as “a flagship for dance,” with Motes projecting 20 weeks of dance programming in addition to the 8-to-12 week commitment from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. While studies had indicated a need for a midsize performing-arts theater, the Shubert’s audience-friendly space would provide unique opportunities for smaller dance troupes to build audiences, Motes says. At the same time, the Shubert’s education program had expanded to 19 schools throughout the state and needed a visible, state-of-the-art classroom space.

With an updated vision for the Shubert in hand, Artspace turned to Miller Dunwiddie Architecture to reconceptualize the building addition, which will serve as a lobby connecting the Hennepin Center and the Shubert Theater. The design created by the Minneapolis firm, which specializes in preservation and new construction in historic buildings, features an angled, glass-walled atrium that integrates the two historic buildings into one seamless complex, while providing a front entrance that “takes the art out onto the street,” Motes says. A Times Square–type LED marquee will highlight attractions and performances at pedestrian level. Images of dancers and musicians will be projected on a two-story metal-mesh screen next to a glass wall. Inside the addition is the education program’s glass-walled classroom, which doubles as a rehearsal space. An event and meeting room, which could generate additional revenue for the Shubert, is on the addition’s third floor.

A year later, Artspace bought itself some breathing room by purchasing the land beneath the Shubert (as well as the parking area between the buildings and the space for a new stage house) from Butler Properties with $2 million from private donors. Lindquist also made a key move that help assure the project’s success: luring Cottage Grove native Kim Motes from the education program at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and from her position as director of development at Arena Stage (the national capital’s largest nonprofit theater) to be the Shubert’s director.