The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, in collaboration with Preservation Alliance of West Virginia (PAWV), the state’s leading historic preservation organization, are sponsoring a planning meeting dedicated to historic theaters. The session will be held Wednesday, March 12, at the Monongalia Art Center, 107 High Street in Morgantown from 10 a.m. - noon. Lunch will be provided. The planning meeting is free to individuals and historic theater groups.
Funded with a $100,000 Preserve America Matching Grant from the National Park Service, the SHPO and PAWV hope to use the meeting to organize theaters and develop programs to promote and strengthen them. The meetings will bring together historic theater groups from across the state to discuss issues and concerns facing them. The meetings also will identify areas for statewide collaboration and provide a venue to discuss funding for theater preservation projects.
Bryan Ward, planning and education coordinator for the SHPO, says “Historic theaters provide a unique opportunity for historic preservation and heritage tourism in West Virginia. Groups across the state are doing amazing things in their communities and we hope to build on their success by promoting these efforts and providing them with funding to do even more.”
Registration is required by March 5 for the Morgantown session. For more information or to register for the meeting, contact Ward at (304) 558-0240, ext, 723 or by e-mail at bryan.ward@wvculture.org. Interested participants who are unable to attend the Morgantown meeting also should contact Ward.
The West Virginia Division of Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Education and the Arts, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. Its administrative offices are located at the Cultural Center in the State Capitol Complex in Charleston, which also houses the state archives and state museum. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. The agency also operates a network of museums and historic sites across the state. For more information about the Division’s programs, visit www.wvculture.org. The Division of Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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