Brookfield Arts Center Plans Concert Venue Upgrades

Better views of the free Starry Nights concerts and increased ticketed outdoor events are key goals of an ambitious plan to upgrade the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts' outdoor venue.

As the nonprofit arts and education center seeks to boost its bottom line and reach a wider audience, one strategy is to take better advantage of its setting in Brookfield's bucolic .

Expanding Sharon Lynne's outdoor programs — performance, sculpture and education — is an important goal of the board of directors, said Jonathan Winkle, the center's executive director.

"There's a lot of excitement building in terms of collaborations," Winkle told Brookfield Patch.

Sharon Lynne leaders are working with city officials for approvals to:

• Regrade the outdoor concert area just east of the building where the free Starry Nights summer concerts are held to improve sight lines;
• Add 620 temporary seats around the stage;
• Ring the concert area with an 8-foot-wide concrete path and more landscaping;
• Relocate an existing art sculpture by artist Terese Agnew of 35 concrete tree stumps — which many concert-goers use as benches or tables for the Starry Nights concerts on Friday nights. The stumps would move slightly east to make room for the 620 seats.
• Maintain a grass area for patrons to bring chairs and blankets

These upgrades would be completed by next summer, and a second, more ambitious phase is on the drawing board that would add:

• A retractable sun and rain cover over the 620 seats
• More speakers and audio visual screens for those viewing east of the ringed area.

That later phase, however, is at least a couple years away, Winkle said.

The first phase could cost upward of $600,000 for fill and grading work, but the Sharon Lynne is working with a prominent area general contractor for possible pro bono work. Contacts are actively seeking donated fill, the most expensive part of the project. A local bank may become a key sponsor.

And Brookfield resident Don Wilson has stepped up to throw his financial backing behind the grading project, pledging to pick up the cost should other options fail. 

Currently, the outdoor concert area slopes down from the stage, creating poor views for those sitting on chairs or blankets farthest from the stage, Winkle said. Some concerts draw in excess of 2,000 patrons who spread out over the park.

About 23,000 cubic yards of imported fill would create slope the ground from about four feet below the stage "up gently to an area about 200 feet from the stage," said Matt Clementi, an engineer with the center's consultant, Bonestroo Inc.

"Even from the cheap seats, we'd have a nice sight line," Clementi told city Park and Recreation Commission members at a recent meeting.

Winkle said in an interview that the plans to keep the free outdoor concerts going. But an improved site could help draw higher-profile performers for ticketed events, such as the center does for its indoor venues like the Kuttemperoor Auditorium.

The center also wants to expand its outdoor sculpture garden and educational programming. Instead of acquiring sculptures, which can be a pricey venture, the center could rent high-end, large-scale sculptures for one to three-year leases.

That would be less expensive and create more variety and interest for those walking around the building and in Mitchell Park, Winkle said.

Doing so also would be in keeping with the city's interest in adding attractive public art.