Athens City Council is putting an additional $10,000 into the Arts/West community facility for repairs and renovations, bringing its allotment this year to $86,000.
What once was the Nazarene Church at 132 W. State St. has been renovated during the past year to change the former sanctuary into a performance space. The city bought the building in June 2005 for about $350,000. The initial purchase and funds for renovations have come from the city's general fund, Councilman Jim Sands, D-At Large, said.
The majority of this year's $86,000, which was appropriated from the city's general fund, originally came from a 3-year, $60,000 O'Bleness Foundation grant and $4,300 donated by Hocking Valley Bank, Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht said. The facility's Olympian Founder membership campaign, a collection of individual donations, also contributes to the allotment and had generated $11,670 of its $25,000 goal as of this past February, Emily Prince, Arts/West events coordinator, said. Additional current estimates were not available.
Arts/West will not be self-sufficient any time soon, but it is trying to generate some money, Sands said. Arts/West rents out the building to community art groups for $125 per evening, a fee that includes a house manager and a technician, Prince said. Groups such as Ohio Valley Summer Theater and Lost Flamingo Company are already using the building.
The building's electrical systems have been upgraded, stage lighting has been added, handicap accessibility has been improved and a bathroom is being added backstage. During bathroom construction this summer, workers hit a gas line that was not where it was supposed to be
George Enevoldsen of the Code Enforcement Office said. Plumbers estimate the damage at $2,500, Enevoldsen said. Funding for the bathroom comes from the Olympian Founders campaign.
Without the new restroom, actors and stage workers would need to exit the building and descend down a set of stairs to reach a restroom inside the building, Councilwoman Carol Patterson, D- at large. said. The location of the older bathrooms was impractical and did not comply with standards set by the Actors' Equity Association, an actor's union that requires backstage bathrooms for buildings in which its members perform, Patterson said.
Actors' Equity has more than 45,000 members in the United States ' 461 in Ohio ' and comprises professional actors and stage managers, according to the union's national office.
Neither that office nor Prince knew how many Equity actors are in the Athens area. Because Arts/West is not officially affiliated with Actors' Equity, meeting Equity requirements is an extra service to the community so that the union's actors can come to Arts/West to perform, Prince said. 17
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