Arts center planned in St. Johns County — but where?

A coalition of St. Johns County arts organizations are collaborating to create a new kind of performing arts space in St. Augustine — they just need a place to put it.

There are a lot of options for touring musical acts with the money to book out venues. Big musical acts — including recent acts like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Khruangbin and many more —  have the St. Augustine Amphitheater.

Traveling acts looking for a smaller, more intimate setting have the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, which is scheduled to reopen this summer and shake off its post-renovation hiatus with acts like Sister Hazel and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. 

But what about community groups? Smaller organizations like the St. Augustine Community Chorus and the St. Augustine Orchestra reserve space in local school auditoriums and churches, but those spaces have to prioritize their own events. 

That can leave those organizations — many of which aren’t raking in large sums of cash — scrambling a bit.

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“They have to remain flexible for concert dates, which is problematic because then you can’t do marketing, you can’t commission works, you can’t engage artists, performers, because you don’t know exactly for sure when,” Eric Becher told Jacksonville Today. “The community, Albert Syeles and others, have wanted a performing arts place since 2009 or so. What I did with my team is create a solution for them, both structurally, in terms of the rendering, but then also how it would sustain itself financially.”

Becher, a former music professor, heads up Vavarde Strategic Funding. He’s working closely with a collection of St. Augustine arts organizations, including Romanza St. Augustine, led by Syeles. Twelve of those groups have banded together to form a coalition called the EpiCentre Alliance. 

Their solution to these problems? The Shell at St. Augustine: a proposed 255,000-square-foot complex would be filled with spaces for musicians to rehearse and would be kitted out for performances with a black box theater, an outdoor amphitheatre and space for performing arts groups to put on shows.

Billed as a performing arts center and academy, EpiCentre envisions a space where organizations and individuals can hold everything from classes to concerts.

A big focus of Becher’s has been ensuring that such a project would be able to sustain itself. Hosting events like conferences and weddings at the space would allow for The Shell to keep prices low for performing arts groups. 

At a time when arts programs are on the chopping block as schools, universities and other organizations look to save money, Becher wants to see The Shell fill in some of those blanks and sustain itself for years to come.

“Most (performing arts centers) are partially funded or largely funded by cities, municipalities, counties, states, even federal dollars, just to survive,” Becher said. “This model wouldn’t require any of that kind of assistance.”

And he’s confident that between local people interested in the arts and the sheer number of tourists who pass through St. Johns County and St. Augustine, a center like The Shell could fill an important niche for the community. 

The only rub is that, even though the EpiCentre Alliance boasts existing partnerships and future plans to partner with a number of local groups, The Shell needs a home. 

St. Johns County has committed to helping EpiCentre find a location for the performing arts center. Becher says he hopes that with the county’s assistance, The Shell could find a place that doesn’t further stress the county’s busy roads and St. Augustine’s limited parking. 

“We’ve been very specific about trying to find a property that’s a solution, not only for The Shell,” Becher said, “but as much for the county and the city as well.”

Although The Shell doesn’t have a timeline for when it may open yet, the arts community showed its support during a presentation to the St. Johns County Commission this week. 

Syeles, who has been involved in the project since the beginning, encouraged St. Johns County to keep the arts top of mind to keep the area vibrant.

“This concept of the confluence of arts, culture and history, developed leveraged to the benefit of both business, residents and visitors,” Syeles said. “Let’s take advantage of this any way we can.”