Carmel performing arts center raises curtain on new name

Carmel’s new 1,600-seat concert hall will be called “The Palladium.” The naming, announced Thursday morning,
is part of a marketing effort designed to generate more financial support and press for the city’s performing arts center, a
$150 million project.

“Hopefully it’ll create some positive buzz,” said Frank Basile, a
member of the board of directors for the foundation that oversees arts center operations. “Hopefully that will pave
the way for going out and raising money.”

The multivenue center is being built and financed through bond
issues by the Carmel Redevelopment Commission. The foundation is charged with raising private donations. Basile and his wife,
Katrina, recently kicked off that effort with a $500,000 pledge.

Public relations manager John Hughey said Thursday’s
announcement doesn’t preclude a major donor from adding his or her name to the $80 million concert hall. The venue is still
under construction. A grand opening is scheduled for Jan. 29, 2011.

The Palladium will share its name with venues
in Hollywood, Dallas and St. Petersburg, Fla., although Hughey noted that not all of those facilities meet the technical definition
of a concert hall.

The whole complex will be called “The Center for the Performing Arts.” That means
the foundation is dropping the placeholder name, “Regional Performing Arts Center,” which has been in use for
the past several months.

The other venues, which are not yet built, will be a 500-seat proscenium theater, a 200-seat
studio theater and an outdoor amphiteather. New names for those parts of the complex are in the works, Hughey said.

Indianapolis Civic Theatre, which recently signed a deal to become the resident company for the 500-seat theater, is working
on potential names for the venue, Hughey said. The semi-professional group is currently based at Marian University.

The announcement Thursday mentioned a few more arts groups that solidfiied plans to perform at the new complex. Those are
Actor’s Theatre of Indiana, Carmel Repertory Theatre, Central Indiana Dance Ensemble and Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre.

The Palladium’s main resident will be the semi-professional Carmel Symphony Orchestra. The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
has also committed to six to eight performances there.

In a prepared statement, Executive Director Steven Libman
said the performing arts center will fill a void in the region as a “one-stop shop for cultural entertainment.”

“The Center will help the City of Indianapolis join the ranks of other similar-sized metropolitan areas that
have had such facilities for years, like the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in
Philadelphia,” Libman said. “Additionally, the Center will address currently unmet space needs in the area for
existing arts organizations, supplementing their efforts to cultivate the arts in Central Indiana.”