By Douglas McDaniel
After his first six months as the CEO for Scottsdale Arts, Gerd Wuestemann is revealing plans to initiate improvements for performance arts venues at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts and areas on the Civic Center mall.
Will he be an instrument of renewal?
"I certainly love building things, I'm not much of a status quo person," says Wuestemann, who took the Scottsdale Arts CEO position in March, replacing Neale Perl.
One other thing is clear: The guy wants to rock.
"I just saw Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field," he says, suggesting there may be more mainstream shows to come for Scottsdale Stadium. "I've seen what you can do with a concert on a baseball field."
A consensus builder who knows how to put projects together, with a keen awareness of the changing demographics of Scottsdale, as well as how far people will come to attend events in town, Wuestemann comes to the local cultural scene with significant plans in tow. He says the task before him is finding a way to renew the Scottsdale Arts campus and restore the one-of-a-kind jewel it once was before a mass of competitors followed their example in a Valley.
Considering how the organization has wide responsibilities for a single arts entity, maintaining a robust schedule of touring performing arts groups, arts fairs during the tourist season and technically challenging contemporary arts shows, just keeping things in working order is a big enough task. He took over an organization with 71 full-time and more than a hundred part-time members, overseeing the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary, myriad activities on the Scottsdale Civic Center Mall,and community outreach projects such as the arts for education program.
In addition to managing an organization that has had a lot of turnover in recent years, he's also launched into a five-year plan to improve the overall performance facilities for the non-profit entity. That includes changing the facade for the Center that hasn't changed much visually since 1987, and making better use of space available for performances.
"We haven't built anything new in 20 years," Wuestemann says. "Over the last decade there have been some struggles with leadership and financial issues. But it's a very large organization that's now poised for a very bright future."
Before he became an arts administrator, he had a successful career as a a performer. Born in Germany, he was a phenomenal classical guitarist and sort of child prodigy, to the point he was performing in Europe at the age of 12. He got a master's of music from Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt, Germany. and came to New York to continue his studies and performances. Wuestemann continued enhancing his educational background in music from then on, getting a master's of musical arts from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and another similar degree from the University of Arizona.
"This is my second stint in the desert, which I love," he says, adding there's similarity between the swamplands of Louisiana, with its mix of Canjun and Creole culture, and the Southwest, with its latino and Native American influences.
If it wasn't for a couple of actual accidents, he might have never entered the business side of the arts world. He says "bad accidents, a bad slip and fall and a bike accident" limited his ability to play at the guitar at level he was accustomed to. So he did the next best thing available to him, joining a business venture to build carbon fiber guitars in Mississippi, then joining the University of Louisiana as a professor of music, where he built a guitar program for students.
From there he became the director of a fledgling arts council in Lafayette, La., eventually becoming executive director of the Acadiana Center for the Arts -- the center itself being built during his watch at the position. The experience of building a flexible "modular" performance arts facility in Lafayette now has Wuestemann looking at how innovative thinking in venues might work in Scottsdale.
"Scottsdale deserves to move forward to improve its assets," he says. "I think change is needed but managing change is key. You can't throw everything but the kitchen sink in at once. Otherwise, you create chaos."
Since opening more than 30 years ago, the Center for the Arts has been facing a increasingly competitive market from other cities in the Valley. There are newer venues in Mesa, Tempe, Chandler and "Peoria just opened a wonderful facility that should really give us pause for thought," he says.
He has a five-year plan. It starts with improving what already exists. Followed by getting funding for bigger ticket items.
The main theater itself, which seats more than 825, is fine, he says. You can make improvements to the acoustics, but not much more. He's really targeting the second theater in the center, which seats 130, for the kind of modular versatility that made the theater in Lafayette so utilitarian. In fact he's invited acoustic and theater systems experts from the project at the Acadiana facility to help come up with plans with the Scottsdale's secondary indoor venue. Another change for the long-term is redesigning the front of the building on side of the main building facing Second Street, creating more of a gateway entry feel for the center, he says,
They will also be looking at what can be done to improve the site on the east of the Cevic Center Mall used for musical performances, with hopes of creating an amphitheater setting, he says. A
bond election is planned for next year to raise capital for such improvements, Wuestemann says. But considering the recent history of Scottsdale for bond votes, that will take a lot of convincing, but the new CEO for Scottsdale Arts is hopeful.
"If you can convince people you have a vision for the place, the more you can convince them to support you."
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