WINSPEAR COMPLETION PROJECT BACKGROUNDERFrancis Winspear Centre for Music

Last updated: September 18, 2014

OPPORTUNITYWe have the opportunity to create something unique to North America by uniting the resources and imagination of three organizations operating with one purpose: to enrich the lives of the people who live in and visit Edmonton and the Northern Alberta region.

Under the aegis of the Francis Winspear Centre for Music, the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Winspear venue, and the Tommy Banks Institute for Musical Creativity will act as a unified catalyst for building community through music.

By combining the influence and impact of our orchestra, our concert hall, community venue, and our creativity centre–we will build a robust, innovative, and welcoming Centre for Music where all types of musical performance, spectatorship, and creation are explored.

PROJECTThe Winspear proposes to complete the original vision for the facility, developing the land currently in use for surface parking in ways that enrich the Edmonton community as a place to learn, prosper, and celebrate.

• Multipurpose rooms and spaces for community use and artistic and educational programming

• Flex-use acoustic performance hall (540 seats)• YMCA Childcare Centre with second-storey outdoor

playscape and integrated cultural enrichment programming opportunities

• Urban design and landscaping to encourage all-season enjoyment of the outdoors

The completion enables the Winspear to fulfill its original mandate to offer exceptional music experiences, providing even greater accessibility for community use and delivering an increased array of educational outreach and community engagement programs. This project will bring upwards of half a million people through the Winspear every year, further enhancing Edmonton’s reputation for quality of life and cultural vibrancy.

We envision a Centre for Music that is open and accessible to everyone, in a way that deepens our appreciation for how music enhances our lives, builds personal connections, and encourages greater participation in musical activities of all types. By doing so, we strengthen the social fabric of the Edmonton and Northern Alberta region, and ultimately create a better place for all to live.

THE MUSIC BOXThe completion of the Winspear will include a 540-seat flex-use performance hall designed with exceptional acoustics that will provide alternate space for more intimate performances to complement the existing 1700-seat concert hall. The space will be easily adapted for rehearsals, conferences, and community and corporate events. For many groups, the need for performance, rehearsal, and programming space is immediate. The need will escalate as the landscape of the city’s downtown evolves and the population continues to grow. The hall will meet the needs of arts and community groups in ways current venues do not, due to the amenities and support services already in place through the Winspear’s current infrastructure, its technologically advanced equipment, and flexible space design.

COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING SPACESThe completed Winspear will energize the city with many new and expanded opportunities for learning and creativity with tech-equipped multipurpose classrooms, studios for sound recording, and welcoming gathering spaces, including a public Discovery Centre interactive creativity hub. By breaking away from traditional one-on-one music education, the Winspear will revolutionize how people engage with music. The Winspear will be an accessible and affordable destination for locals and tourists, an inclusive space to explore music where people of all ages and from diverse backgrounds connect and celebrate life.

This will also be the home base for the Tommy Banks Institute for Musical Creativity, which will offer a variety of relevant and continually evolving in-house and outreach musical arts programs to over 50,000 community members of all ages.

Programs will be thoughtfully designed to engage all members of our diverse community, as our palette of existing and developing programs demonstrate:

• YONA-Sistema afterschool orchestra social development program for underserved youth

• it stARTS with Me arts immersion camps for underserved and at-risk youth

• Adopt-a-Player classroom composition and performance program

• Musicians in the Making performance program for amateur musicians

• Winspear Sound School site-based immersive learning classroom

• Wee Ones at the Winspear learning field trips for preschool children

• Rusty Musicians orchestra workshops for erstwhile musicians

• Health in Harmony program bringing live music to hospitals, assisted living and hospice care facilities

• Corporate executive training and teambuilding seminars and conferences

• Drop-in and registration programming for a variety of ages and interests, including informative talks, choirs, drumming circles, parent & child music adventure classes, etc.

9720 102 AVENUE, EDMONTON, AB T5J 4B2PHONE 780-428-1414 TOLL FREE 1-800-563-5081WINSPEARCENTRE.COM

AUTOMATED PARKINGAn innovative and separately financed parkade is an adjacent project under development, part of the long-term financial sustainability planning for the Winspear Centre. The Automated Parking System will create space for 379 parking stalls in the core of downtown on a fraction of the space that currently parks 87 vehicles, replacing the revenue earned from the current surface parking lot that supports the Winspear operations. This high-tech mechanized system installed in cities all over the world is both user-friendly and eco-savvy. The sophisticated computerized retrieval system returns vehicles to their owners within a two-minute timeframe. Users will be able to wait in a comfortable vestibule or grab a coffee at the café.

CONNECTIVITY THROUGH URBAN DESIGNCommercial retail bays will be created along 97th Street, animating the area with tenants such as a YMCA-operated childcare centre, cafés, bistros, boutiques, and street-front offices for arts and community organizations. Urban design upgrades to the exterior spaces are planned such as flora and tree landscaping around public seating clusters with sun-capture canopies to embrace outdoor living, outdoor screens to stimulate the creation of a pedestrian plaza, and a permanent Open Piano installation to inspire impromptu musical experiences. The completion of the Winspear will create new walkways, indoor and out, to connect Churchill Square with the Quarters district and our glorious River Valley.

Dr. Francis Winspear dreamt of creating a place where the people of our region

could create beautiful music, and share it with each other.

The time has come to transform this superb concert hall into a true Centre for Music. To construct a state-of-the art setting where every person can come to celebrate music

in its multitude of forms – right in the heart of downtown Edmonton.

To learn more, please visit WinspearCentre.com/Completion