Up to this point, talk of an arts district in downtown Columbia fell under the category of "Wouldn't that be neat?"

But this week comes a concrete indication of a genuine need for another arts venue.

For years, dancers from local studios and other artists have performed at Howard Community College's Smith Theatre. Those groups are now out in the cold because of converging circumstances that led college officials to be more selective about which outside groups it permits to use the theater.

The college has funded renovations to the venue with a county bond that prohibits it from making a profit from rentals of the space. Meanwhile, HCC's expanding enrollment and programs have brought a corresponding in-house demand for use of the theater.

The logical solution would seem to be for the ousted groups to use The Jim Rouse Theatre for the Performing Arts at Wilde Lake High School, the county's other big community arts venue. But that facility is booked solid for the foreseeable future.

It would be great for Merriweather Post Pavilion to step up here, but as some graduating classes at county high schools learned recently, such community events have to give way to big concert tours, which, after all, are the pavilion's bread and butter.

And Merriweather is probably too big a venue for local dance productions anyway.

It would be a loss to both these performers and the community for them to be shut out of performance space that accommodates the kind of audience they draw.

Plans for a future arts district need to include space that's easily available and affordable to community arts groups like these.

That would be more than neat. It would be a great addition to Columbia.

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