An important step. A gem of a building would be an understatement. Truly a beauty!
But programming and execution has been less successful so far IMO. The whole project has a bit too much of the old-school heavy institutional feel to it for my liking, a feeling more common of the Arts Common's era of cultural institutions of the 70s and 80s than the best examples of contemporary cultural institutions. Cold to passerbyers and inward looking; rigid and rule-following rather that organic and experimental; a classic museum rather than a vibrant cultural hub. Not the characteristics of a place that is at the cutting edge of contemporary music culture. I would have rather seen more effort put to "spill" music outside into the city loud and boldly with better indoor/outdoor interactions. Instead the NMC seemed to have followed a similar path as other Calgary institutions: designed for 30-50 year olds, safe, family-friendly.
There is nothing wrong with those outcomes, but where is the celebration of youth, experimentation and counter culture; a major source of music and cultural change? (or to answer my own question, perhaps asking an institution to achieve this is folly to begin with; as institutions, by definition, are the very thing that is being rejected to form new ideas and music).
The King Eddy re-opening will be an important step to address this gap. Similarly, some of NMC's after-hours events have been really great, the King Eddy rooftop bar during Stampede have been good examples of an attempt to "lightening the mood", so to speak. The sound quality and performance spaces are also quite good, when they are open. And I don't want to be too critical as the NMC is only one piece of a musical cultural puzzle, and as UrbanWarrior describes, many external factors influence how the facility is being used by the public. I would have liked to see a bigger chunk of the $250 million go to attract a university music faculty or arts school into the NMC that can really anchor a living musical culture in which NMC was the heart, as opposed to a more traditional museum where people can look at instruments.
Not too late yet though, programming is easy to change and evolve over time. A beauty of a facility like this will be around for a long while so it can still evolve into something more than it is.
