That's entertainment: from shopping and fine dining to museums and the performing arts, Fort Lauderdale has become a 24-hour city with lots of ways for locals and visitors to amuse themselves - Fort Lauderdale City Report: Culture

South Florida CEO, Oct, 2002

* On Las Olas Boulevard, the smells of cheeseburgers, Italian food and steaks mingle with those of fresh-made cookies and fudge. Cars squeeze into parallel spots on the street, and art galleries and clothing stores beckon shoppers. Further west, in the Old Town Himmarshee Restaurant District, young professionals stream onto Second Street, moving between the restaurants and bars. Patrons file into the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. The sun is setting, and Fort Lauderdale's urban core is undertaking its nightly transformation from central business district to entertainment center.

The nightlife extends, with a few breaks, from the beachfront on the east to the Broward Center on the west -- the linchpin of the Riverwalk Arts & Entertainment District that runs along Second Avenue from Avenue of the Arts to Andrews Avenue. The $57 million, 204,000-square-foot Broward Center, which opened in 1991, is run by the quasi-governmental Performing Arts Authority, composed of representatives from the city, county, school board, Fort Lauderdale's Downtown Development Authority and the center's foundation.

"We were designed to achieve certain results in the community," says Broward Center CEO Mark Nerenhausen. And those results had as much to do with economic development as with the arts. Looking at the city's vibrant arts community now, it's hard to tell that just five years ago -- when Nerenhausen came on as CEO -- the Broward Center was struggling. "Five years ago, we were in debt, the Center was dark a substantial amount of time, and audience attendance was okay," Nerenhausen says. "Now, we're out of debt, we're full in terms of activity and we have 600,000 people a year coming down here." Those patrons ring up $20 million in ticket sales annually at 500-plus performances. "A substantial part of the increase of [the city's] tax base is due to having the center downtown," Nerenhausen says. With its facilities fully booked, Nerenhausen is looking at whether the Broward Center needs more space.

The arts also bring in dollars from outside the city, in the form of performers, crews, and, most importantly, tourists. "Cultural tourists spend more money, stay longer and are opinion leaders in their communities," says Michael Kenny, director of Cultural Tourism at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau. For example, Nerenhausen expects 30 percent of the audience at the Broward Center's upcoming "The Lion King" to be from outside the tri-county area.

The "asset to be exploited," as Nerenhausen calls the Broward Center, is not the only component of the Arts & Entertainment District. A walk along the river from the grandly named Avenue of the Arts will lead you past the Museum of Discovery and Science, through the greenery of Esplanade Park, by the Josephine S. Leiser Opera Center and past the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society. As you leave the Himmarshee area, you might be tempted to meander through Las Olas Riverfront, a retail complex, into the Museum of Art or into the Broward Main Library. Since the Broward Center became a reality, some $100 million has been invested in the district, which Nerenhausen calls "more a state of mind than a tightly bounded area."

The Museum of Discovery is another highlight. It moved close to the Broward Center in 1992, where it's marked by a 52-foot tall "Great Gravity Clock" outside its entrance. The interior is filled with two floors of interactive exhibits.

The museum, however, has been through its ups and downs. With staff changes, and the luster of the new fading over the past few years, many exhibits had fallen into disrepair. That's why in April its Board of Trustees brought back a familiar face: Kim L. Cavendish, who had been executive director of the Discovery Museum in the early '90s. Cavendish, now president and CEO, has taken up refurbishment projects, installing everything from new exhibits to new flooring. She is also considering an expansion that will be dedicated to environmental exhibits -- particularly on the Everglades. "I want to be considered a cooperative player downtown," says Cavendish.

Nearby is the Museum of Art, which brackets the east end of Second Avenue. New interim director R. Andrew Maass, a veteran of Florida's arts institutions, was brought in to jumpstart growth at a museum that "has been somewhat insular," he says. "It's not casting the shadow that it probably should. Even to the point that its signage is non-existent." The museum boasts one of the leading Cuban photography and painting collections in the US, as well as the country's largest collection of European CoBrA art. "It serves as a magnet to European tourists who come to this area," Maass says. A 10,000-square-foot addition (opened in January 2001) showcases the work of American impressionist William Glackens.

Maass' mission is to better showcase the museum's permanent collection, and to increase the number of "outsider" art shows. This year he will feature an exhibition of African art to celebrate the opening of the African American Research Library & Cultural Center in midtown, and will re-display the museum's own collection of Picasso ceramics -- for the first time in five years. Next year, the museum will present another unusual exhibition, titled "St. Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes."