The show must go on for PAC

Although still in production, the Palmer Arts Council is already planning a blockbuster that is sure to be a hit with in the Mat-Su Valley.

The group’s dedication to the area’s arts community is commendable and we are pleased to learn of the innovation and dedication its members have shown so far in making its dream of having its own dedicated facility happen. After $400,000 funding to purchase land for the future Palmer Arts Council building was chopped as part of Gov. Sarah Palin’s budget cuts last fall, the council could have whined and cried, but would have been no closer to realizing its dream.

The show must go on.

Backing up their resolve, PAC members reached into their own pockets and a piece of land was purchased for $350,000. Now tapped out, the PAC is left to its creativity and hard work to make the facility happen. Enter Monique Caron, an architecture student at the University of Notre Dame. Instead of paying an architectural firm thousands of dollars to design the building, Caron will do the design as her senior thesis.

All it’s costing the PAC is a couple of plane tickets. What a creative way to work around what could have been a project-killing problem. It makes us wonder why this type of collaboration isn’t used more often by area nonprofits. Perhaps students studying construction and carpentry at the new technical high school could help perform some of the labor building the new facility. Not only would this be a great way for the PAC to reach out to other segments of the community, it gives our future builders real experience working with local contractors.

You read quite a bit about the Palmer Arts Council in the pages of the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, and there’s a good reason for that — the PAC does quite a bit. This is an active, vibrant organization that continually moves the arts community forward.

That the PAC board and members are so willing to literally put their money where they mouths are and work hard themselves for what they want is refreshing. Too often we hear of groups that, for one reason or another, don’t get state or government funding. So, they throw up their hands, blame government, and the good works that were planned go unrealized.

There’s a long way to go before we’re sitting in the new 300-seat Palmer Arts Council theater, but we’re confident the PAC will not throw up its hands and the Valley will respond with enthusiasm and applause.