An opera company in Austin, Texas, is spending $4.5 million to buy a new building that it hopes will serve as a hub for the city's other arts organizations.
The Austin American-Statesman reports on the new Austin Opera headquarters, a 16,000-square-foot former architectural company building that includes offices, rehearsal studios, meeting and gathering spaces, and a 195-seat performance venue that will be made available to other arts groups 40 weeks out of the year.
The opera currently holds its major performances in the Long Center for the Performing Arts, but Annie Burridge, the group's CEO, says the demand for space for other arts groups in the city is increasing, and the organization hopes the new headquarters will be a place to start.
"The biggest red herring in the nonprofit community is that folks think that the corporations are charitable, and they’re not there’s amazing companies who are an exception to this, like HEB," she says.
Austin Opera's new headquarters was made possible via a $7.5 million capital campaign, which is almost halfway complete.
But while supporters have stepped up to help with the campaign, the organization has had to turn to philanthropists to help fund some of its programming efforts that for many years were paid for with Cultural Arts Read the Entire Article
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