The board of trustees and staff of the nexStage Theatre announced Monday that its goal to purchase the Ketchum theater has been achieved. The $1.5 million first phase of the Sun Valley Performing Arts Center's capital campaign to purchase the theater from the Mott Family Foundation has come to a successful close.
Sun Valley Performing Arts Center's bid to keep the nexStage as a live theater and an important community center was aided by what the board is calling an "extraordinary outpouring of local support."
The SVPAC/nexStage Theatre, the 501c3 nonprofit arts organization, has been running the theater for the past seven years. With the purchase, SVPAC/nexStage will take ownership of the property at 120 S. Main St. The group plans to continue to offer quality performing arts programs and productions for the future at "the little theatre that could."
"This is a powerful and historic example of what a community can achieve when it pulls together," said Renata Beguin, Sun Valley Performing Arts Center board of trustees member. "Together we have ensured that future generations will be able to enjoy the incredible variety of community functions and the quality of theatre that the nexStage offers. With so much love and commitment expressed for the theatre, we are all looking forward to an exciting future for the nexStage."
The former owners, the Mott Family Foundation, were instrumental in making this community project possible by generously offering to sell the property to the SVPAC for a reduced cost of only $1.5 million. In addition, the foundation patiently supported the campaign by extending the time it gave Sun Valley Performing Arts Center to raise the funds. The property, which became a theater in 1992, remodeled from an old Jeep dealership by arts advocate and former resident Ando Hixon, is valued at approximately $2.5 million.
Tim Mott, president of the Mott Family Foundation, sent his congratulations.
"We'd like to congratulate the Sun Valley Performing Arts Center on the success of their fund-raising campaign to purchase the nexStage Theatre in Ketchum," he said. "We recognize this as an indication of broad support for the performing arts here, which is something we'd always hoped to see. We're proud to have made such a significant contribution to that fund-raising, and to have been able to secure and hold the theater for the community during the time the SVPAC needed in order to demonstrate it's viability in both programming and fundraising."
The purchase comes on the heels of a national study on the positive effect that the arts have on a community economically. The study indicated the arts are responsible for $6.2 million in annual cash flow in the Wood River Valley annually.
"More than 20,000 people attend performances at the nexStage each year, but support came not just from those who use the theater," said SVPAC spokesperson Pru Hemmings. "After-school theatre kids, ballet students, musicians, Shakespearean actors, dance, music and drama groups were joined by other local non-profits, city planners who want to keep Ketchum's Main Street alive, art gallery owners and artists, as well as large benefactors, out-of-town patrons and family foundations.
"Citizens realized the importance of having a vibrant live theatre center in the heart of our community and contributed to this fundraising effort."
The nexStage Theatre is Ketchum?s only public performing arts venue. Photo by David N. Seelig
