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Carmel’s performing arts campus has a new name, four years after the pandemic scuttled a previous naming-rights deal.
Leaders with The Center for the Performing Arts and Carmel-based financial services firm Allied Solutions LLC on Wednesday announced a sponsorship deal that renames the not-for-profit arts organization and its multi-venue campus the Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts.
Financial terms of the seven-year agreement were not disclosed. Center CEO Jeff McDermott said the partnership will help provide financial stability and greater resources for expanded programming.
“I think it gives us opportunities to look at different types of artists,” he said. “But I think our educational programming will hugely benefit from this, and that’s been a big factor for everything we do here. We are committed to arts and music education here, and you’ve seen that grow over the last few years, and I think we’re going see that grow significantly.”
The center’s 6.5-acre campus opened in 2011 in Carmel’s Arts & Design District and features the 1,500-seat Palladium concert hall and the neighboring James Building, which houses the Tarkington theater and the Studio Theater.
The organization also provides rent-free space for six resident arts companies: Actors Theatre of Indiana, Carmel Symphony Orchestra, Central Indiana Dance Ensemble, Civic Theatre, Gregory Hancock Dance Theatre and Indiana Wind Symphony.
Programs launched recently include free student matinee performances for school groups, a transportation grant program to lower participation costs for schools, a commission program for local performing and visual artists, and an annual performing arts camp for youth with disabilities.
The Allied Solutions Center for the Performing Arts campus is also home to the affiliated Great American Songbook Foundation. The songbook foundation last year entered into a preliminary agreement with the city of Carmel to build a museum on 3.7 acres at the northeast corner of City Center Drive and Third Avenue Southwest.
Allied Solutions CEO Pete Hilger said Carmel’s arts scene has been a major recruiting advantage for the financial services company that opened its current headquarters in 2018 in a 135,000-square-foot building at 350 Veterans Way. Allied Solutions has sponsored the “Center Presents” season since 2015.
“It’s amazing when you look at what this city has created for its people,” Hilger said. “And when we came into the arts area, I said, ‘We need to be a bigger impact to this community.’ And we started first with the community level, with the city and doing things. You see our name spread out throughout the city here. And then we said, ‘what more can we do? And what is this city known for?’ And it’s the arts.”
A study conducted last year by Americans for the Arts estimated that Carmel’s arts venues generated $42.7 million in economic impact in 2022. In 2022, more than 1 million people visited The Center for the Performing Arts for performances, educational programs, Christkindlmarkt and the Carmel Farmers Markets.
The center reported a 45% increase in patrons in 2023, including a 50% increase in first-time visitors and a 30% increase in return visitors.
Mayor Sue Finkam called the partnership between the center and Allied Solutions “perfect harmony.”
“It’s an incredible investment in an incredible organization who’s really good stewards of the dollars that we’re proud to support,” she said.
The center worked with Chicago-based IEG, a leading sponsorship consultancy, to help guide the organization in its search for a naming rights partner. In 2019, IEG performed an independent analysis for the center in its initial naming-rights campaign.
The center had a naming rights partnership in place with an undisclosed health care company and nearly had a contract finalized when the pandemic began in March 2020. McDermott last year told IBJ the center “decided to hit the pause button” knowing that companies were not likely looking to pay for naming rights.
“When we decided a number of months ago to relaunch it, we sort of got the word out there, somewhat quietly,” he said Wednesday. “We knew that there were some opportunities out there that we wanted to check with first. And, so, it actually came together very quickly.”
In 2022, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank purchased the naming rights to the center’s box office at the Palladium.
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At least the new name won’t be a mouthful like “Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center” that Deer Creek had when first sponsored by Ruoff.
+1
Was hoping for Conseco.
Since so much public money has been spent on the entire campus it, should be required to disclose the agreement to the people that ultimately paid not only for buildings, but also the operation of.