In December 2011, a leadership consortium, led by the Greater Boise Auditorium District and including representatives from the City and the philanthropic community, engaged AMS Planning & Research (AMS) to explore the feasibility of repurposing all or a portion of the existing Boise Centre facility for a Performing Arts Center.  The Greater Boise Auditorium District had initiated plans to forward a referendum to develop a larger convention facility for the Boise community and the leadership consortium believed that the Boise arts community might be well served by a mid-sized (approximately 1,000 seats) venue in downtown Boise, suggesting that the potential opportunity provided by a relocated and expanded Convention Center might appropriately serve that need.

AMS engaged in a series of tasks to identify community and market interest in the project, assess potential use of a new mid-size facility and how the presence of a new venue might complement or compete with others in the community, study comparable markets with a similar inventory of facilities in the United States and create an activity profile and operating plan based on input received.

The desire for a new mid-sized performance venue in downtown Boise came from an understanding that current options were not financially or artistically viable, rather than that existing facilities were so busy that they could not accommodate all of the demand.  During the course of the study, the Velma E. Morrison Center at Boise State University developed a flexible curtain system to propose a solution that may well address these articulated venue challenges.  

While AMS did not recommend the development of a new performance space downtown, it did craft several ''next steps'' recommendations, including the development of a cultural master plan.

In early 2010, following the successful development of the City of Providence's cultural plan, Creative Providence: A Cultural Plan for the Creative Sector, AMS Planning & Research (AMS) was engaged by AC+T, with funding from the Rhode Island Foundation, to assess the opportunity for efficiencies in operations, marketing and fundraising to address the sector's need for more and diverse revenue streams. 

Although AMS found interest in maximizing efficiencies through shared services, it became evident that more significant issues regarding the sustainability of the cultural sector needed to be addressed.  In the summer of 2011, a revised approach, employing a sustainability analysis to assess sector health, was adopted.  The intention of this revised approach was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the health and vitality of the sector.  This understanding was necessary to establish priorities and develop benchmarks to assess future success. 

The study focused on establishing the Providence arts and cultural sector's current level of "vitality" in comparison to benchmark communities and recommending strategies to increase its vitality to sustainable levels.  The approach consisted of the following tasks:

Situation Analysis

Recommended Goals and Strategies

Over the course of the study, AMS and AC+T also conducted two planning roundtables, which brought together Providence arts leaders, business leaders and philanthropists. 

AMS's final recommendations, as well as an overview of all study results to date, were presented at a community meeting in October 2012.

AMS Planning & Research (AMS) was hired in May 2012 to prepare the Business Case for the Edmonton Performing Arts Center (EPAC), which is one of three components in the proposed Edmonton -- Downtown Academic and Cultural Campus (E-DACC). E-DACC will also include facilities for the University of Alberta Department of Music and the Department of Art and Design, as well as commercial office and retail space.

The business case for EPAC is based on six areas of benefit to the community: filling a gap in the venue inventory, program expansion, "place-making", market-making, collaboration, and realistic operating economics. Along with existing venues in the cultural corridor, the development has the opportunity to be a catalyst for transforming the downtown Arts District into a vibrant cultural destination.

AMS's scope of work included preparation of a detailed organizational and financial operating plan to maximize operating success for the EPAC, including an assessment of venues and seating capacity. AMS provided objective, practical insights and recommendations to enhance the positive impact the proposed facility can have on community vitality, arts and entertainment offerings, and economic development priorities through the introduction of a ''cultural core'' concept.

At the conclusion of the initial study, AMS was retained to provide additional and ongoing project support to the development, including further financial operating plan analysis, a local venue impact analysis, and research into cultural districts and cultural trust models in the United States and Canada.