Shaw Center shines in downtown BR

• By CHAD CALDER
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Dec 30, 2005

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The Shaw Center for the Arts, one of the most ambitious projects in downtown Baton Rouge's history, opened to the public in March.

The center was conceived as a way to improve the city's cultural stock and elevate its reputation nationally, and has emerged as an anchor for the continuing resurgence of downtown Baton Rouge.

The Shaw Center traces its roots to the late 1990s, when an effort to preserve the old Auto Hotel at Lafayette and Convention streets gave birth to the idea of moving the LSU Museum there.

Several years and about $65 million later, the Shaw Center opened as a partnership among LSU, the state, the city-parish and the Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

The center features the 325-seat Manship Theatre; two black-box theaters for dance, music and performing arts; the LSU Museum of Art; LSU's Laboratory for Creative Arts and Technology; the LSU School of Art's gallery; the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge and the Brunner Gallery of contemporary art.

It also includes a gift shop, a small park and water fountain, a sculpture garden and the rooftop restaurant Tsunami, a Lafayette-based sushi bar and grill.

Eateries scheduled to open include P.J.'s Coffee and Wine Bar and the Capital City Grill.

A multistory parking garage is under construction across Convention street and will open later this year.

The Manship Theater will feature The Louisiana Choreographers' Showcase and a concert performance by John Waite this summer.

The LSU Museum of Art will include Currents of Change: Art and Life on the Mississippi River; Painted Plates: A Family Workshop; and 5 p.m. concerts by the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra.

Most of the funding for the project came from four partners: the state provided $24.7 million, which includes $2.6 million in land; LSU gave $12.6 million; the Baton Rouge Area Foundation gave $9.8 million; and the City-Parish provided $2.2 million. Private donors contributed about $15 million.

Including $2.6 million in land costs, the project cost about $65 million.

The Shaw Center's operations budget is about $700,000 per year, 58 percent of which will be funded by LSU, 36 percent from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the remaining 6 percent through donations, sponsorships and other income.