Cultural projects vie for Salt Lake dollars

A citywide renaissance is waiting in the wings, with the Living Planet Aquarium, the Utah Museum of Art & History, the Leonardo, a new Utah Museum of Natural History and the Unity Center all wanting to open soon in Salt Lake City.

So what's putting it off?

Money, primarily. With so many projects vying for cash, some wonder if there are enough private dollars in a small city like Salt Lake to pay for them all.

Lon Watson, vice president of the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation, told the City Council earlier this year that his group is being hit on all sides from all the city's various cultural projects.

City Councilman Dale Lambert even took to voting against one of the proposed projects — the Living Planet Aquarium — because he thinks it is the least likely to succeed.

Any money the aquarium does raise, he believes, might be sucking resources from a more feasible project.

"I am quite skeptical that they will succeed in raising sufficient money to put the project together, especially in light of all the competing fund-raising that's going on," Lambert said. "If that's the case, should we tie up resources while they proceed?"

Despite the concerns, however, most managers in charge of raising funds for the projects remain positive and insist their designs will come off as planned.

After all, these potential cultural and institutional projects are all partially funded — some to greater degrees than others. And Salt Lake City leaders already have poured in, or are ready to pour in, tens of millions in taxpayer dollars to help many of the projects.

At the Leonardo, a proposed cultural museum blending art and science at the city's now vacant former public library downtown, Mary Tull maintains there is enough room for all the projects. Leonardo fund-raisers even try to work with other projects so they're not stepping over each other, she said.

"It is a Salt Lake renaissance," Tull said, adding, "I don't see (competition between projects) at all."

And as the national economy begins a potential rebound, Tull said fund-raising is looking up.

"We're really happy that we're on a little bit of an economic upswing here," Tull said. "I wouldn't say I'm worried ,and it does help that the economy is picking up."