Performing-arts complexes become development tools

Along the northern Front Range, performance halls in Fort Collins, Cheyenne and Greeley – once the subjects of great community debate – have become the objects of community pride. Moreover, each has become part of the chamber of commerce packages that sell these cities to individuals and corporations considering relocation. And although some constituents have opposed the building of performance halls as an economic drain, the evidence suggests that centers for performing arts have become critical to economic health, both for individual municipalities and for the region. Battles in the beginning when the Lincoln Center opened in…