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Sumners Led Tampa Arts Center During Tough Times

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By KURT LOFT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 30, 2007

TAMPA - The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center today ranks among the country's most prestigious, and Warren K. Sumners helped raise the curtain on its success.

Sumners was executive director of the $57 million complex during its darkest days, battling a tide of deficits and poor attendance that were an inevitable part of the city's cultural growing pains.

He undoubtedly would have been proud of the turnaround in Tampa, and some say his early efforts to keep the center afloat haven't been forgotten.

Sumners died Nov. 14 in Arizona. He was 70.

"As a new organization, there were a lot of issues with the arts center, but Warren built the infrastructure," said Judith Lisi, the center's president since 1992. "Overall, it was a very challenging time. But he was a high-quality professional."

Sumners came to the center in 1989, two years after it opened to great fanfare on the banks of the Hillsborough River downtown. He replaced David Midland, the center's inaugural director, and absorbed plenty of troubles. Neither were able to generate the synergy needed to attract and build a core audience.

As a result, the center bled red ink from the onset, losing $2.5 million the first year and $630,000 by the time Sumners resigned in 1991. The late H.L. Culbreath, former chairman of TECO Energy Inc., served as interim chief until Lisi's arrival.

"It's an uphill struggle to build your audience and a good financial situation," Sumners told the Tribune at the time. "It appears that the public isn't supporting as much as the hall can do."

Today, the complex operates in the black on a $35 million budget, and has amassed a $30 million endowment.

Such success hinges on the initial work that gave it momentum, said John W. Talbott, a colleague of Sumners at Performing Arts Consulting Associates in Atlanta.

"He was one of the founding fathers of our very young industry," Talbott said. "He knew the industry, and he knew it well. He devoted his life to it. He was my mentor and close friend."

Before coming to Tampa, Sumners served as managing director of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center from 1979 to 1989. He also worked as a design and construction team member for the development of new and renovated arts facilities valued at $750 million.

In Tampa, he helped coordinate the annual Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, the Super Bowl task force, and Shakespeare in the Park. A graduate of Arizona State University, he earned a bachelor's degree in business management and accounting and a master's degree in counseling and student personnel.

Sumners battled a number of health problems over the years, including prostate cancer and a heart ailment. In the late 1990s, while driving his convertible on the Florida Turnpike, he lost control and crashed. He awoke after 16 days in a coma to find his right arm had been severed.

WARREN K. SUMNERS

Born: Sept. 14, 1937, in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Died: Nov. 14, 2007, in Scotsdale, Ariz.

Survivors: Mother, Billie, of Tempe, Ariz; wife, Rose, of Chromo, Colo.; son, Steven and his wife, Shannon, of Port St. Lucie; daughter, Kathryn Maguire and husband, Jason Maguire, of Chesapeake, Va.; and grandchildren Mitchell and Evan Maguire.

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

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