Though she wasn’t named Parker’s cultural director until 2012, Elaine Mariner knows the first season of performances at the PACE Center, the town’s cultural keystone, was a challenge.
When it opened it 2011, — short for Parker Arts, Culture and Events — featured some concerts and stage productions that sold fewer than half their tickets.
“Nobody knew who we were,” Mariner explained. “If you used Google Maps, Google Maps didn’t even know who we were.”
In October, PACE turned 5. Not only has Google Maps gotten familiar with it since that first season, so too have a good number of people in Parker, the wider metro area and beyond. Mariner even got a call from a man in Maryland when PACE welcomed country music artist Clint Black in 2014.Box office manager Bill Berry said that in its first full season — Oct. 28, 2011, through Oct. 27, 2012 — PACE hosted 105 performances, and sold 20,532 seats, 44 percent of capacity to those shows. In its most recent season, Oct. 18, 2015, through Oct. 27 this year, PACE and its smaller cousin, the , hosted 106 performances and sold 41,198 seats, 84 percent of capacity.
In total, the center had hosted nearly 1,000 performances by the end of its fifth year, selling nearly 225,000 tickets, officials say.
“Now we routinely sell out shows,” Mariner said. “I would attribute that growth to having a fuller understanding of what our audience wanted. We needed to know them.”
PACE has hosted national touring musicians like Bruce Hornsby while also striving to serve the local creative community, Mariner said. It co-produces local theater productions with . It has hosted sell-out shows from the and .
Since 2014, PACE has presented afternoon matinees so area school kids can enjoy theater performances. It is home to a professionally curated art gallery, hosts community meetings, events and a variety of classes for kids and has even been the venue for nearly 75 weddings in the last half decade.
Mariner’s gaze is fixed on the future.
“We want to build on and capitalize on PACE’s success; to grow the presence of arts and culture outside the walls of PACE, particularly in downtown Parker,” she said.
Mariner is looking to add performances at the 200-seat Schoolhouse Theater, located just across the street from PACE in the complex. A contemporary jazz series has been launched there, and more dramatic theater performances are being targeted. Mariner said her department is also developing an artist-in-residency program for the schoolhouse.
Further down Mainstreet, at the corner of Pine Drive, PACE has commissioned a massive public art piece called “Ball and Jacks” for the town’s new Discovery Park.
“It should really establish a presence for more public art in Parker,” Mariner said of the giant piece. “And also draw attention to the public area already here.”
Mayor Mike Waid remembers making the motion at a Town Council meeting to approve construction of the $21.7 million PACE Center. Since then, both his sons have taken classes there and he has appeared on stage in performances of “West Side Story” and “Spamalot.”
“Itap an incredible success. The facility has outperformed our expectations in all aspects,” Waid said of PACE. “The creative district in downtown Parker is really the soul of our community and it provides an opportunity for our citizens and guests to experience creative exposure they normally wouldn’t get in a community our size.”
