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Support Old Greenbelt Theatre
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
April 30, 2013 at 9:59 am
GREENBELT, MD — The Old Greenbelt Theatre is one of the many D.C.-area historic places in contention for $1 Million in grant money. They need your help so they can complete essential renovations. Go to Partners in Preservation to vote through May 10.
Read more in the Greenbelt Patch.
(Thanks to Jack Coursey for providing the photo.)
Comments (2)
The National Cathedral has a 2 to 1 voting advantage as of today..not too good. I’m reading there is money put aside for some upgrade work. They should at least get a digital projector to maintain some operating viability.
The article points to many needed upgrades, but $1M? Are they going for a renovation like the AFI Silver? If so, thats quite ambitious, maybe overly so given the area. You’ve got the Academy 8 a few miles up thats the main competition and they’ve got 3D Digital to boot. Unless they can get their hands on a 70mm projector… ;–) there could be some great counter programming here.
Thanks so much for this blog post and for supporting Greenbelt’s effort to win preservation funds through the Partners in Preservation program. We are up against some very high profile historic sites, so we need all the help we can get.
We are realistic, though, and (barring a miracle) don’t expect to win the competition, per se. According to the Partners in Preservatin website, “The historic place that has the most points at the end of the voting period will receive a grant for up to $100,000. The remaining funds will be distributed to the rest of the participating historic places based on a recommendation from an advisory committee of area community leaders.” So a strong show of communty support really matters! The hope is to use any grant money to install a digital projector, upgrade the restroom facilities, improve accessibility, and restore the interior – those are the highlights, anyway. I have not seen the complete plans. The theatre is owned by the City of Greenbelt, so hopefully, it will continue to operate for years to come.
The theater is beloved by the community, hosts the Utopian Film Festival each year and shows some films at least that wouldn’t be shown at the Academy 8.