Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Center, Company of Fools finalize merger

Organization to make public announcement tonight


By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Kristin Poole

The Ketchum-based Sun Valley Center for the Arts and the Hailey-based Company of Fools theater group have merged into a single nonprofit arts organization that plans to offer productions, programs and events throughout the Wood River Valley.

Leaders of the two groups are scheduled to make a formal announcement of the agreement at a celebration tonight, Jan. 2, at 5:30 p.m. at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. The public is invited to attend.

The announcement comes after more than a year of analysis by the governing boards of the two organizations and a hired consultant. Under the agreement, Company of Fools will become the theater arm of The Center but will retain its name and identity. The theater group will continue to be based out of the Liberty Theatre, which it has used as its headquarters through an agreement with actors Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, the owners of the building.

“We are thrilled to add this ‘fourth leg’ to The Center’s programmatic table—complementing our strong visual arts, music and humanities offerings,” said Kristin Poole, artistic director and co-executive director of The Center.

Denise Simone, a core company artist of Company of Fools, said the merger will allow the two groups to more easily collaborate on entertainment and education projects.

“It’s a merger about deepening our community, rather than downsizing,” she said.

As a final step, Company of Fools’ nonprofit 501(c)(3) status was dissolved so the organization could move under the administrative umbrella of The Center.

Simone said the primary motivation for the move was an opportunity to cooperate, but she noted that the merger is expected to solidify both organizations.

“I think every arts organization in the last four years has had to look at sustainability,” she said.

Simone said the new, unified organization will now be one of the three largest arts organizations in the state.

The nonprofit Sun Valley Center for the Arts, founded in 1971, is the oldest arts organization in the Wood River Valley. Company of Fools was started in Richmond, Va., in 1992. It moved to Hailey in 1996 and has since produced dozens of plays at the Liberty Theatre. 


Greg Foley: gfoley@mtexpress.com




About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged:

  • Spam
  • Ones violating this site's commenting policy
  • Clearly unrelated
  • Personal attacks on others
Comments should not be flagged for:
  • Disagreeing with the content
  • Being in a dispute with the commenter

Popular Comment Threads



 Local Weather 
Search archives:


Copyright © 2024 Express Publishing Inc.   Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Express Publishing Inc. is prohibited. 

The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.