This is a narrative of successive frames of digital images created over the course of precisely two years.  Selecting 30 images from over 5000 is at once somewhat arbitrary, but there is some intention to what is presented here.  From cold concrete and steel to warm color, fabric and giant flora, the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Center for the Performing Arts has evolved dramatically in the past 24 months.  Creating this collection of documentary photographs is an extraordinary adventure that continues as the work is completed.  The presentation here is a set of snapshots along that journey.  The intention is shaped by perspective, vantage point and history.  As we look at the building today, it is harder to envision the beginnings, so you will note that there is emphasis here on the earlier stages of construction.

All but image #1 were created using high-end digital cameras.  (There were no digital cameras in 1984.)  I began the project using a Fuji S1 camera that accepted Nikon lenses.  Near the end of 2001, a Nikon D1x was added.  In the fall of 2002, the S1 was replaced with a S2.  All the images were printed using a seven color Epson 2200 with archival pigment ink on premium luster paper.

Some personal observations come to mind.  As the curtain wall began to wrap around the front and east side of the building, creating the Wintergarden space, it became a kind of grid through which one could view the downtown.  As the glass was installed, an incredible inner world of powerful vertical space, soaring structure, was shaped, as if to prepare future waiting audiences for the soaring spirits of performing artists inside the theater itself.  The theater transformed into an incredible community house where audience and artist can truly connect by virtue of a space made intimate through wonderous elliptical shape and rich, inviting color.

Why “cultural legacy building”?  The concept comes from two considerations.  First, we are building on the site of a building that had an historic heritage unique to our region and its time.  Rike’s Department Store was a cultural phenomenon in and of itself.  In many ways, it was a theater of extraordinary merchandising. Secondly, and most importantly, we are building on a legacy within our own community, an exceptional heritage of cultural excellence in performing arts. 

Let the music begin.