I agree with Israel that this is a can of worms. And that it can only be effected by having an independent manager with the attributes he describes. On a practical note, there are a lot of issues to be resolved. A big one is the demand for time at the ends of semesters: everybody wants that last month to month and a half. Another is conflicts in type of space needs: theater needs a fly area for curtains, etc, which is anathema to sound reflection for music. If there is a device to cut off the dead space and reflect sound out to the hall, time is needed to convert. Theater needs large blocks of time, to get sets put together, painted, lights hung, plus rehearsal, plus a common two weekend run. Music and dance are relatively quick in and out. Perception (based on reality)? Theater is a space and time hog, taking more than its share. So if there are big demands on the space, it will be difficult to resolve who gets what when in an equitable manner, even with all the good will in the world. Best advice is to schedule fairly large blocks of time in a rotating manner very far in advance, and let the individual departments worry about how to allocate within their own blocks. It can't be a matter of operating by consensus based on negotiation (though there should be room for negotiation, when both parties can agree to a change). Regards, Fred Sturm University of New Mexico fssturm at unm.edu On May 14, 2009, at 9:29 AM, Israel Stein wrote: > Zeno, > > Space sharing in an academic institution is a can of worms on any > level - be it a intra- or inter- departmental. Any "system" is > susceptible to being "gamed" and violated by faculty types many of > whom have an extremely self-centered approach - " this is what I (or > my students) need and everyone else be damned". You are dealing with > artists' egos here... The only way space sharing works is if there > is a theater manager who manages the schedule, has the absolute > power of decision over space use, sole control of access, backing of > the administration and a strong stomach/backbone combination. > > Israel Stein >> >> Message: 4 >> Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 10:17:50 -0400 >> From: Zeno Wood <zeno.wood at gmail.com> >> To: College and University Technicians <caut at ptg.org> >> Subject: [CAUT] Mechanism for sharing performing arts center >> Message-ID: >> <cee63c600905140717v5848ea2dy92c6f5aeb15a4ddc at mail.gmail.com> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" >> >> Semantics aside, here's an actual college-related inquiry: >> >> We're going to have a new building in a few years, to be shared by >> the music >> and theater departments, and the public concert/dance series. The >> three >> entities have mostly separate spaces, but the main performance >> stage/space >> is to be shared. Although each of the parties understands to some >> extent >> and acknowledges the space usage needs of the other parties, at >> some point >> there will probably be some time conflicts. The working committee >> is trying >> to come up with a governance plan to resolve this kind of thing, >> without >> bothering higher-ups such as the president, vp, or provost, and is >> asking >> around to see if something like this already exists. >> >> Does anyone out there know of colleges/universities that have good >> systems >> set up for allocating shared performance spaces? >> >> Thanks! >> Zeno Wood >> Brooklyn College >> -------------- next part -------------- >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >> URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut.php/attachments/20090514/03ce84bc/attachment.htm >> > >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> CAUT mailing list >> CAUT at ptg.org >> http://ptg.org/mailman/listinfo/caut >> >> >> End of CAUT Digest, Vol 7, Issue 77 >> *********************************** >> >> >
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