DANVILLE – Danville’s historic Capitol Theater is a step closer to becoming a community arts center. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has approved a $10,000 grant for the Danville Business Alliance to begin a feasibility study for the project.
Executive Director of the Danville Business Alliance James Wilson says the longterm goal is to create an arts district downtown, “The first step in being able to do this is a feasibility study that would enlist a lot of community input, in particular from the arts community, on how this building could be most feasibly used while at the same time generating enough revenue to be economically viable.”
Wilson says after they get community input they will continue forward. He said, “Assuming that the study comes back and says it can be configured in such a way that would make it economically viable, then we’re going to launch into future phases like fundraising and ultimately construction or reconstruction of the building.”
He says an arts center could benefit the entire town. “It’s being spearheaded by what is called our Economic Restructuring Committee. I think for a long time they’ve been persuaded that essential to business development, attraction and retention is having the arts represented in your downtown. It just adds more diversity, vibrancy and foot traffic,” Wilson said.
The grant was awarded under the Historic Preservation Program, which funds efforts to preserve publicly accessible historic resources that could be included in the National Registry of Historic Places. (Codi Jade)