“Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens’ veto of legislation to fund half the cost of an ambitious University of Missouri-Kansas City downtown arts campus has raised a giant question. Now what?” write Mará Rose Williams and Lynn Horsley in Friday’s (7/7) Kansas City Star. “University of Missouri System officials … put out a press release saying they would announce an alternate funding plan in September…. The Downtown Campus for the Arts is proposed for an area … just south of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. What’s planned is about 165,000 square feet on four floors, with two state-of-the-art performance spaces and some other flexible spaces. By contrast, the current UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance is about 54,000 square feet in three cramped buildings…. UMKC raised half of what it would cost to build the downtown arts campus…. Compounding the challenge for the university is the UM System’s announcement last month of more than $100 million in cuts, eliminating 474 jobs from its four campuses.… David Renz, who directs the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, said … raising that amount ‘will be a challenge, but I don’t think it is insurmountable…. Kansas City is blessed with a philanthropic community.’ ”
Posted July 11, 2017
