Peoples Bank Theatre is pleased to announce that they are receiving a grant of $10,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support “First Friday Music Series.” This series will be free and held outdoors on Putnam Street every first Friday from May 2023 through October 2023. The theatre also plans to expand programming in the Stage Door Space as well by hosting a series of educational activities.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support organizations across the country, including Peoples Bank Theatre. The arts help communities to thrive,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD., chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. “Meaningful engagement with the arts can have many benefits, from contributing to collective healing and mutual understanding, to strengthening local economies.”
The grant will help implement a free outdoor music series on Putnam Street in front of the Peoples Bank Theatre as part of Marietta Main Street’s, “First Friday” events. Additionally, the number of activities in the Stage Door space will increase. As the headlining acts increase in financial scale and frequency, the theatre is finding it more difficult to fulfill the part of our mission to “develop cultural awareness through educational programs”. Peoples Bank Theatre would like to serve the community by providing educational or participatory programming and hope to use the “First Friday Series” and “Stage Door” space as a less formal and potentially more welcoming forum for both artists and audience members.
“The intent is to expand the access of artistic activities available to those communities of people who fall outside of the theatre’s typical demographic. We would like to make Putnam Street and our Stage Door space our ‘Front Porch’ to the theatre where less formal musical performances and educational outreach takes place,” said Hunt Brawley, JD, Executive Director of Peoples Bank Theatre.
The Peoples Bank Theatre is a 944 seat historic theatre located in downtown Marietta, Ohio. It was built as the Hippodrome in 1919 and renamed the Colony Theatre in 1949. Closed since 1985, the Peoples Bank Theatre was fully restored in 2016 and now puts on over 100 events to more than 30,000 patrons a year.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the Arts Endowment supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit arts.gov to learn more.