NOTE: This is an update from the version of this brief that appeared in the Feb. 19 print edition.
The music venue coming to Brown County this summer has a new name, but it might not keep it.
Changing the name from “Maple Leaf Performing Arts Center” to “Sundown at Salt Creek” was approved by a vote of 4 to 2 at the Maple Leaf Management Group meeting last week.
However, in an email Monday morning, venue Executive Director Dana Beth Evans said that “further discussions will be held to determine a name that better reflects our values and vision.”
“Having surveyed over 600 potential visitors in Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati, the name polled well,” Evans wrote. “In light of further research of historical information that was not forefront in anybody’s mind, we quickly realized that this name does not fit with the image we want to project or who we are.”
Historically, “sundown towns” were communities that kept non-whites from living in them, or banned non-white people from being in them after dark.
The survey Evans referred to was answered by potential music venue guests from Louisville, Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Ninety-one percent of people who answered the survey identified themselves as white, 5 percent were black, 2 percent were Hispanic and 4 percent were “other.”
Survey data showed that people preferred the name “Sundown at Salt Creek” over other options, including two variations of “Maple Leaf.” Thirty percent preferred “Sundown at Salt Creek” with the tagline “Indiana’s live music destination.”
Some of the reasons survey participants gave for why they liked Sundown at Salt Creek were that it was the most “catchy” name; it’s easy to say; and it paints a picture of a beautiful, peaceful setting.
One of the problems with “Maple Leaf” is that online searches for those words and hashtags bring up maple syrup and the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, said Jane Ellis, executive director of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Management group co-president Barry Herring and member Darren Byrd voted against changing the name to Sundown at Salt Creek.
The management group had a work session set for Tuesday, Feb. 19; its next meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 26.
