Unscheduled delays aside, Guadalajara will unveil an aesthetic, state-of-the-art performance and cultural space in June 2013.
Located to the north of the city, across from the Trompo Magico Children’s Museum, the Palacio de la Cultura y Comunicación will contain a 1,900-seat auditorium, an outside performance arena for 3,350 spectators and a small theater with a capacity of 370.
In addition, the complex under construction will house a museum dedicated to the radio and television industry, an “art wall,” a musicians’ hall of fame and music and dance schools.
The contemporary and innovative design of the Palacio has been praised by architects on international message boards.The project is spearheaded by the powerful Asociación de Radiodifusoras y Televisoras de Occidente (Radio and Television Association or Rato), which includes major broadcasters Televisa and Television Azteca among its members.
The federal and Jalisco governments have chipped just under one-third of the estimated 40-million-dollar cost of the project. Rato and other private investors are providing the remainder of the funding.
Rato purchased the 14,380-square-meter plot of land – on Avenida Central, next to the Hacienda (tax) offices in Residential Poniente – in 2009 from the Zapopan municipality, which had originally planned to build a center for the elderly there.
In an interview earlier this year with Proceso magazine, Jose Perez Ramirez, Rato president and owner of radio network Promomedios de Occidente, defended the project from critics who accuse the broadcasters of unethical behavior for using public funds for an essentially private enterprise.
“This is the first great museum that will showcase the past, present and future of the radio and television industries,” Perez said.
“Our objectives are eminently cultural – education and communication,” Perez said during a tour of the facility this week along with Jalisco Governor Emilio Gonzalez.
Perez told Proceso that the project is unlikely to be a profitable exercise.
“Culture is not a business, not in Mexico or anywhere,” he said. “We would need an auditorium of 8,000 to 10,000 people to present someone like (singer) Luis Miguel and cover our costs. In an auditorium of 1,800 we would need to charge 5,000 or 10,000 pesos a ticket just to cover costs.”
The governor agreed with Perez that the Palacio would “compliment” rather than compete with other performances spaces such as the Auditorio Telmex and Teatro Diana, which are owned and operated by the Universidad de Guadalajara (UDG).
Nonetheless, Perez said: “The advantage in our case is that we will not need to pay for publicity, which represents 30 to 35 percent of the cost of staging an event.”