Perhaps this performing arts center could also incorporate a few large conference rooms. There is obviously a need for both a performance arts center and a conference type facility. As your blog indicates the smaller venue did not meet the needs of the viewing public. We also witness our city and county officials needing to take their business to neighboring counties, ostensibly due to the lack of accommodation, for yearly planning sessions. Our performance generated revenue and tax dollars should remain in Liberty County.

Great idea! Appropriate affordable meeting space is hard to find.

Both of you are 100% correct. The time is past due for a performing/cultural arts center.

I think that it would be important when planning this facility to remember the meeting space factor as well as GALLERY space. We have so many tremendously talented artists in our community with no place to highlight the skill and joy that they could bring to the people who live here.

Our student artists are also to be remembered. Liberty County school children contain an amazing amount of artistic and creative talent that we are unable to tap into on a large scale due to lack of space for showcasing that talent.

Not only would a facility such as that described above help to expand the performance/cultural arts in our community, it could also help to attract some of the larger conventions and tourist attractions to this community. Without the meeting space to offer our county has been overlooked and subsequently those tax revenue dollars go elsewhere.

My two cents!

I doubt that the taxpayers will go for it... but to enhance the quality of life I would support it entirely. I miss operas and theatre as well as musical performances. But then again I was in a metropolitan city or in Europe. Hinesville is neither nor does it have the budget of revenue to imitate on either!

I do not believe that anyone is suggesting a Taj Mahal like center for Hinesville. However, if we are to believe the hype that Hinesville is the fastest growing city in the Southeast, then perhaps we could begin to plan for the future rather than reacting to the past. A venue with perhaps seating for 500 in an auditorium and accompanying conference/meeting rooms would be great. As "lpoole" stated in the comments above, "Not only would a facility such as that described above help to expand the performance/cultural arts in our community, it could also help to attract some of the larger conventions and tourist attractions to this community."

Just trying to think outside the box a little. Look at the Savannah Morning News sometimes when they are listing the events being held in Savannah and the amount projected to be spent. . . http://savannahnow.com/node/547199. I know that Hinesville could not currently support a lot of those meeting but we could support family reunions and small conventions. The money does not always have to go to Chatham or Glynn Counties. Especially our tax dollars when our county commission, city councils, school board officials and other elected officials meet.

I agree with the need to bring more cultural arts opportunities to the community. I too enjoy a wide variety of performing arts and feel that the Hinesville area would be greatly enriched should we be fortunate to have an appropriate venue in the future. The aforementioned suggestions to design a venue that is suitable to various uses is very wise to maximize the utility to the community. Doing so will eliminate the need for additional buildings and thusly save taxpayer investment. Speaking of taxes, anything we can do to either retain people in Hinesville or draw folks in from surrounding communities will only elevate the tax dollars spent in our community.
I also agree that any such endeavor should be designed to uniquely meet the needs and objectives of our community rather than attempt to imitate what is done in another community. Yes, we are a much smaller (and remote) community - may I suggest that everything is incremental.