We\u2019re asking thought leaders, business people and creatives to talk about the upcoming new year and give us catalyzing ideas for making St. Pete a better place to live. What should our city look like? What are their hopes, their plans, their problem-solving ideas? This is Catalyze 2026.<\/p>\n
Big change is in store for the Palladium Theater in 2026 \u2013 thanks to a very public capital campaign, $13 million has been raised for major renovations, including news seat, better acoustics and vastly improved sightlines.<\/p>\n
The 800-seat Palladium will close for a year, probably in August, as construction commences.<\/p>\n
Executive director Paul Wilborn is eyeballing greener pastures for everyone in \u201926. \u201cI\u2019m starting to feel, as I look at the new year, that I\u2019m kind of the old guy in town,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBecause I\u2019ve been running the Palladium now for over 17 years. And a lot of the men and women I started with have moved on, or taken other jobs, or retired.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what\u2019s exciting is, we\u2019ve got a lot of great leadership in the big arts organizations in St. Pete, who\u2019ve just been here for a year or two years. And I think they\u2019re really going to hit their stride in the new year. And I\u2019m excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leadership, he stresses, \u201cis really important in our arts institutions. I\u2019m real impressed with the new folks at The Florida Orchestra, and the Museum of Fine Arts, the Holocaust Museum, American Stage \u2026 they\u2019ve been here for a few years, but I think it takes a few years to get your feet underneath you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilborn says the theater\u2019s renovation bankbook, which includes money from the State of Florida, the City of St. Petersburg and the county\u2019s Tourist Development Council, as well as private donations, is practically swelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are suddenly responding to the capital campaign in a bigger way. We\u2019re raising a lot of money, through the Name-a-Seat campaign and other things, because people know it\u2019s happening, and they feel excited that it\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly gratifying and exciting to be where we are. Because until we got there, we were never sure we would raise all this money, in the environment we\u2019re in right now. But we\u2019re already picking contractors, and in January we\u2019re going to pick the construction company \u2026 and we\u2019ll be doing work by late summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s hoping the Side Door Cabaret, the small room below the main hall, might be able to remain open a little longer. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to know yet,\u201d Wilborn explains, \u201cuntil we know exactly what scope of this project, and will we still have parts of the building accessible?\u201d<\/p>\n
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