Arts Center's Leaders Doing An Admirable Job

Arts Center's Leaders Doing An Admirable Job

March 3, 2011

ORLANDO SENTINEL LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Chuck Steinmetz

What an honor to be recognized by the Sentinel as a "champ" Saturday for supporting the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. What a disappointment to read such disparaging editorials about the organization.

My wife and I support this project because we believe in the mission and the leadership.

I have the honor of sitting on the board, giving me the opportunity to address the complexities, along with a diligent team of board volunteers and highly qualified leadership who have operated against a changing economy and a changing political landscape.

Let's be fair.

These leaders raised $80 million before the design started. Donors have stood behind them, and pledges now exceed $90 million. This isn't ironic; it's telling. Few in Central Florida have risen to the occasion to ensure its future through philanthropic support like this.

Admirably, managers have guided the project through the approval, design and site-preparation phases to the threshold of construction within the original budget set in 2005.

Projects like these are tough. They have many partners and many layers. If this were easy, it would have been done already.

People don't invest millions in "shoddy management" and "amateurs." There must be more to the story.

Thanks for the regard, but please allow me to share the stage with the performing-arts center team, which deserves credit for what it has accomplished for this community.

The work it has done has been unprecedented. That shouldn't be discounted.

Chuck Steinmetz, Winter Park 

Letter in Orlando Sentinel