Self-help guru Stephen R. Covey and his wife, Sandra, with help from city officials, christened the building the Covey Center for the Arts. The Coveys donated $2 million toward the $8.5 million project.
Mayor Lewis K. Billings said it wasn't just the financial contribution that led to naming the building after the Coveys. He said it was Sandra Covey's love for the arts and the passion she had for creating the arts center.
Sandra Covey is a member of the Provo Arts Council and was in charge of the fundraising effort.
Said Stephen Covey of his wife's work: "She has had the vision, the passion and also the discipline governed by conscience."
He said Sandra Covey was a tireless fundraiser, always looking for people to ask for money. Then one day she turned her gaze on him, and the family made its $2 million commitment to the project.
Stephen Covey was also grateful to his 47 grandchildren for parting with a portion of the family fortune to build the center.
Sandra Covey said she was initially hesitant about having the center named for her. Usually that's an honor extended to the deceased, she said. But after a string of health problems she feared that was going to be the case with her.
She expressed hope that the center would become the catalyst for revitalizing the city's downtown area and turn it into a thriving arts district.
"I can envision lovely restaurants coming in, and this whole downtown area cleaning up" because of the center.
George O. Stewart, Municipal Council chairman, said the transformation of the former library was incredible.
"It's hard to believe that they took a library, an inadequately built library, and turned it into a performing arts center," said Stewart, a former mayor.
The building features a 670-seat theater, an amphitheater, art gallery, a dance studio and rehearsal rooms. The building, according to Provo Arts Council executive director Kathryn S. Allen, boasts the second-best acoustics for a performance hall in the state, just behind the LDS Church's Conference Center.
The center already has hosted several performances since the beginning of the month, and Allen said the public response has been enthusiastic. While it is the home for the Utah Valley Symphony, the Wasatch Chorale and the Utah Lyric Opera Society - as well as the performance home of the Utah Regional Ballet - Allen said the Covey Center will be more than just a theater.
It also will host arts and dance classes, along with arts exhibitions.
Allen said there is enough demand for the arts to support it and other groups in the area, such as SCERA in Orem. There are 1,500 registered artists in the area who can show their works there, she said.
Also, the Center Street location is ideal and has quick access to the freeway.
While the building is done and named, Billings said it is a half-million shy of being paid for, and the city still needs to raise $3 million for an endowment for the arts.
dmeyers@sltrib.com
