In fact, the downtown facility known as the DPAC has been with us for under a year. But what an impact it already has had.
As The Herald-Sun's Cliff Bellamy reported on Tuesday, the first few months of the DPAC's operation have exceeded the facility's projections and the hopes of its many boosters. It is worth noting that success has come in the teeth of the "Great Recession" of 2009, when discretionary spending decisions on such things as arts and entertainment would seem to face particularly close scrutiny by would-be patrons.
Consider that in its first six months, the DPAC sold out 25 shows. And consider the range of shows that sold out -- Willie Nelson, Steely Dan, Harry Connick Jr., Bill Cosby, Lewis Black, and the entire week of the Broadway touring show of Oprah Winfrey's "The Color Purple."
That range of programming has been one of the center's strengths. Operated by Nederlander/PFM, one of the world's largest owners and producers of Broadway shows, the DPAC gets best-brother-in-law access to top Broadway touring shows. But the array of programming brought a number of folks to the audience in this first year who might not have initially thought the DPAC was for them.
Here's a key figure: For its first season, the venue sold 6,000 tickets for the SunTrust Broadway series. Already, that number is half again higher -- 9,000 season tickets have been sold -- for season two.
The DPAC's contributions to downtown revitalization are legion.
"The theater in seven months had a $10.9 million economic value to Durham," according to Reyn Bowman of the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Not long before the DPAC came on the scene, the Nasher Museum of Duke University opened. Already home to several blockbuster exhibits, the museum last week opened a major Picasso exhibit.
The Nasher and the DPAC, among many smaller but innovative venues, are transforming the arts scene in Durham.
With DPAC poised to build on a phenomenal opening season, we can only expect this city, once known mostly for tobacco and textile manufacturing, to continue to consolidate its growing reputation in arts and entertainment.
To that we can only say, bravo!
