NEWS: Artist and Business Leader Launch “Friends” Group for Performing Arts Center

Artist and Business Leader Launch “Friends” Group for Performing Arts Center

Newly formed group will advocate for building of 2,500-seat theater

SALT LAKE CITY – Wells Fargo executive David Golden and Emmy Award-winning composer Kurt Bestor announced today they have joined forces to launch “Friends of the UPAC” – a group of arts organizations, patrons and business leaders formed to support the creation of the Utah Performing Arts Center, a proposed new cultural facility for downtown Salt Lake City.

Bestor and Golden will lead the Friends of UPAC group by coordinating supporters’ efforts to communicate the cultural and economic value of a new downtown performing arts center to the community, as well as to business and government leaders.

Although Golden and Bestor come from widely different backgrounds, both feel strongly that Salt Lake City could see major economic and cultural benefits by adding a new performing arts center to the mix of arts facilities in the Cultural Core of Salt Lake City. The proposed center includes a 2,500-seat theater to be used primarily for commercial touring theatrical and musical productions, and a smaller theater and rehearsal space to be used by local arts organizations.

“I see the UPAC as an important next step for Salt Lake City in its development as a thriving arts center in the West,” said Bestor. “I travel all over the country and believe Salt Lake City needs a facility like this to further vitalize our downtown and help grow new audiences.”

Golden said business leaders in Salt Lake City were the first to recognize the need for such a performing arts center as far back as the 1962 Second Century Plan created by the Salt Lake Chamber.  The plan listed a new performing arts center among ten vital projects for the City as it moved into the next century. Of those ten projects all were completed except the performing arts center.

“Construction of the UPAC will expand the local economy by almost $500 million and create over 4,000 jobs,” said Golden. “Once built and at stabilized occupancy, the Utah Performing Arts Center will generate ongoing economic benefits of $14.8 million in output and create 168 new permanent jobs in Salt Lake County.”

The UPAC project recently received unanimous support from the Salt Lake County Cultural Facilities Advisory Committee, which recommended $25 million in capital support for UPAC as part of the Salt Lake County Cultural Facilities Support Program.

For more information about the Utah Performing Arts Center, go to www.utahperformingartscenter.org.

Kurt Bestor

Kurt Bestor is an Emmy-award-winning composer, who for over 20 years has composed an incredible variety of music in a myriad of styles and genres. From over 40 feature-length films, 16 popular CDs, numerous television themes, and mix of live shows, he has established himself as one of America's most prolific and versatile composers.

Bestor's music has introduced NFL Monday Night Football and National Geographic Explorer; he has also scored TBS's Wild! Life Adventures and the IMAX film "The Great American West." He received the Outstanding Film Score Award at the New York Film and Television Festival for his music for PBS's "A More Perfect Union" and an Emmy® for his collaboration with Sam Cardon on the original music for ABC's coverage of the 1988 Winter Olympics.

David Golden

David Golden is the Executive Vice President and Manager of Wells Fargo Commercial Banking’s Mountain Division. He has responsibility for the group’s commercial banking activities throughout Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico and Nevada.

Golden joined Wells Fargo in 2001 through its acquisition of First Security Bank. Prior to that, he served as a member of First Security’s management committee, chairman of the corporate credit policy committee, and as a member of the corporate loan committee with responsibility for risk management and credit administration. David currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and on the boards of the Utah World Trade Center and the Downtown Alliance.  

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