The National Endowment for the Arts Awards Colony Theatre $30,000 for 1919 Fire Curtain Mural Preservation

Marietta, Ohio, June 15, 2007 –The Hippodrome/Colony Historical Theatre Association (HCHTA) has been awarded $30,000 by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the field of visual arts. The award supports professional conservation of the fire curtain mural (circa 1919) attributed to artist John Z. Wood, who worked for the Twin City Scenic Company of Minneapolis. The NEA funded 20 grants in Ohio this year.

Other recipients include the Columbus and Cleveland museums of art, the Dayton Ballet Association and the Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center. The awards in Yellow Springs (YS Kids Playhouse) and Marietta (Colony Theatre) stand out because the other Ohio awards were all made to organizations located in large cities.

Hunt Brawley, Development Director of the HCHTA, says “We are extremely pleased to receive this award because it will help us professionally restore the most important decorative feature in the theatre and one of the very few original elements from 1919.”

The 1,000-seat facility, built in 1919, will greatly enhance the cultural and educational opportunities currently available to residents and visitors in the Mid-Ohio Valley. A funding package that includes a two-million-dollar tax credit from the Ohio Historic Tax credit program could enable the HCHTA to begin construction by the end of summer. A seat-sponsorship campaign, expected to launch in July, was recently created to generate additional capital for the funding package. 

(To see a picture of the fire curtain, visit our Photo Gallery)