Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1999 - 12

Barbara E.R. Lucas

COLORADO'S
CULTURAL

ATTRACTION~
town's National
Historic District.
This year the

~~~~~~E~~~~~.~~~~~~~~~~

Opera House
sports comfortable new
theatre seats,
replacing old

.: hickory chairs.

SCFD li
Scientific & Cultural
Facilities District
The Denver Scientific & Cultural
Facilities District's logo celebrated its
tenth anniversary. The bear mascot is
used, in many different poses, as a
visual cue for the SCFD.

ALL

TL>&T

very dollar spent in the Denver region when SlIT holds its Annual Conference & Stage
Expo next March will mean increased support for cultural diversity and excellence.
This is because a tenth of evelY penny in sales tax goes directly to a Scientific & Cultural
Facilities District. This six-county metropolitan Denver area of over 2.2 million people is home to
many outstanding programs, supported in part by their mutual inclusion in the district.
The Scientific & Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) was put in place in 1988 to help support
arts organizations hurt by shrinking government cultural hlllding and a concurrent recession.
The tax was extended in 1994 for another ten years. SCFD recipient organizations employ almost 4,000 people, the eleventh largest non-government employer in the Denver metro area,
and cultural programs in the region are attended by more people than the combined home
game attendance of Denver's major sports teams.
scm funds more than 300 organizations, (rom the nationally known-for example, Central
City Opera and Denver Center for the Performing Arts-to small community theatres and arts centers throughout the area. Funding is divided into three groups. The region's four major institutions-the Natural History Museum, Denver Zoo, Denver Art Museum, and Denver Botanic
Gardens-receive fifty-nine percent of the hll1ding. In 1998-1999 these four received $17.5 million. Another fourteen organizations with budgets exceeding $750,000 were assisted with funding
that totaled $8.5 million. The rest of the $30 million collected last year was distributed to counties,
disbursed in proportion to the amount received in revenue from each.
Central City Opera, which last year received $270,000 from SCFD, bills itself as a ··truly intimate experience." Modern-day performances are always in English in this Victorian gem that was
built in 1878 but soon fell into disrepair. It was restored in 1932 and has been holding nationally
acclaimed summer festivals since then. Most recently, a 1998 project saw new theatre-type seats
installed giving audience members more room. Because of the change, Central City's total seating
capacity was reduced by about 27 percent but patron comfort increased substantially. Along with
the new seats came an improved air cooling system.
Support from SCFD is only part of the opera's financial package. For the past two decades,
Central City Opera has actively promoted the training of young singers. The Bonfils-Stanton Founda-

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1999