This has been a season of amazing triumphs for Tulsa Ballet.
What audiences have seen on stage over the past eight months has been some of the best performances this incredibly talented and versatile company have ever done. Tulsa Ballet's dancers have enlivened less than wonderful ballets (the visually impressive but choreographically lean "The Great Gatsby"), and have risen easily to the challenges of modern classics like Jerome Robbins' "The Concert" and new dance works such as Luciano Cannito's boldly entertaining and fiendishly difficult "Viva Verdi!"
And Thursday night, Tulsa Ballet opened its latest creation – the Studio K/Kivisto Hall that is the culmination of a $17.3 million integrated campaign to fund the company's operations, endowment, capital improvements and educational outreach.
Yes. You read that number correctly. To be exact, as of Thursday, the Tulsa Ballet board and staff has raised $17,358,988 from 270 donors.
Over the past decade, as the vision of artistic director Marcello Angelini for Tulsa Ballet began to take root and grow, I've been trying to convince people that what has been going on at 4512 S. Peoria Ave. is something extraordinary.
And it is something that should impress and encourage every Tulsan, not just the people who enjoy ballet.
Let me put it this way: the importance of the arts in a society is not entertainment, nor economic development, nor a way for "rich people" to bolster their status. The reason why the arts of a community, of a nation, are important is because they reveal to what degree the people of that community value the enduring ideas and innovations.of the past, and how willing they are to explore new ideas and innovations.
When we as a people decide that certain things aren't worthy of consideration, or that we want to limit our interests only to "the things we know and like," or "what everyone else wants," we're closing our minds to life's rich pageant of possibilities. We stunt our mental and emotional growth. We begin to lose our humanity.
Fortunately, there are many Tulsans who understand this, and have gone to great lengths – and great expense – to insure that this city understands and appreciates the value of the arts.
That is why Tulsa Ballet has been able – in this economy – to raise the money to transform its already world-class facility into something that is unique in the dance world: a space devoted to the creation of new art.
It is why the Signature Symphony is gearing up to celebrate its 30th anniversary this coming season, and its own transformation into one of the city's most active performing organizations, with an extremely popular orchestral pops series and an ever-growing classical season, along with a dedicated and wide-ranging educational partnership with Tulsa Public Schools.
It is why the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra has been such a success in the course of its three seasons, from a daring idea conceived and nurtured by founder Frank Letcher to selling out the 2,400-seat Chapman Music Hall on a regular basis.
It is why Tulsa Opera has been presenting the great works of the lyrical theater for 60 years.
It is why the Philbrook Museum of Art and Gilcrease Museum were created, and why they continue to be unique, living institutions.
Yet, for all the successes of these organizations, they are also very fragile and delicate creations. They need careful and diligent cultivation to continue to survive.
Raising $17.3 million and opening the Studio K/Kivisto Theater may be the culmination of Tulsa Ballet's "Exceeding Expectations" campaign.
But for the ballet – for all of the arts in Tulsa – this is just the beginning. What comes next depends on how much we as Tulsans want the arts – and ourselves – to grow and thrive.
