Pledges ranged from saving downtown's Utah Theater to building stronger bonds with the University of Utah to squeezing more cash from the often arts-averse Legislature.

"We've had enough of being the whipping kid of the Legislature," House Minority Leader Ralph Becker told an audience filled with arts patrons during the monthly Culture Bytes gathering. "It hurts us. It hurts the arts community."

But the politicians sounded different horns on how to provide more focus - and especially money - for arts in the capital.

Jenny Wilson, a Salt Lake County councilwoman, vowed to overhaul all printed promotions and to drive patrons to a more dynamic Web site, perhaps through weekly e-mail blasts from the Salt Lake Art Center. She also would push for more performances at Pioneer Park, more interaction with the city's refugee community and more arts programming in the winter months.

"We made it work during the Olympics," she said.

Wilson also wants to see a film center just south of the LDS Church's City Creek Center, under construction on Main Street, as well as international art exhibits on the ground floor of the planned version of Salt Lake City's World Trade Center.

"I live in the city because I love the texture," she said. "I don't want to live in Sandy. I don't want to live in Draper."

Keith Christensen, a businessman and former city councilman, argues arts funding is "anemic" and vowed to use the mayor's microphone as a bully pulpit. He says his business-community contacts would donate - "They will participate over my dead body," he said - and promised to rally multiple Wasatch Front mayors to pressure state lawmakers to be more generous.

"No one's ever tried it," he said. "We're not thought of as an arts community, and we ought to be."

Christensen, who noted he "saved" ArtSpace while on the City Council, also calls the city's liquor laws "archaic."

"Their time has come" - and need to change.

Dave Buhler, a city councilman who helped sponsor the Zoo, Arts and Parks tax measure as a state senator in 1996, promised not to interfere, but take guidance from the arts council, if elected.

"I don't think that's always been the case in the past," he said.

Buhler says the city focuses too much on bricks and mortar and not enough on individual artists. He pledged to help revitalize smaller theaters and huddle with Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon to coordinate programs. To build the fundraising base - Buhler recently helped double funding for the arts council - the candidate says the city should work to lure more corporations.

Becker says the city needs a defined district for the arts, while preserving Main Street's moribund Utah Theater is key.

"It would be a tragedy to lose that theater," he said.

Becker also wants a Broadway theater, better promotion and a stronger effort at City Hall to take advantage of the U.'s "incredible necklace" of cultural facilities.

Becker, who helped save a funding program for the arts at the Legislature, also advocates more arts discussion at the community-council level.

J.P. Hughes, polling near 1 percent in recent surveys, also had new ideas. He would push to use the LDS Conference Center as a performance space as well as take artists to schools to inspire kids.

All of the candidates praised the city's diverse cultural festivals and the monthly gallery stroll, but said the capital should do more to promote similar events. Creating a cultural district, they said, makes sense. And the panel members said they would support a Broadway-size theater if the funding could be found.

Shirley Ririe, co-artistic director for Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, is rooting for big ideas. She says arts support under Mayor Rocky Anderson has been OK, but complains he antagonized too many people with his constant anti-Bush, anti-war activism.

"He's been kind of a kook," she said. "I want more well- thought-out plans. This is what we haven't done."

In an interview, Anderson defended his arts advocacy, noting the $75,000 increase for the arts council was his idea. He called it "bizarre" that anyone in the arts community would complain about his opposition to the Bush administration.

The mayor pointed to promoting artist rights from sidewalks to the Farmers Market. And he said any notion that YouthCity or the jazz festival siphons money from the arts is "absolutely preposterous."

Still, according to arts council director Nancy Boskoff, the group receives less than half a percent of the city's annual budget.

djensen@sltrib.com