Prizery trip successful

The Cultural Center Committee had an excellent fact-finding trip to the Prizery in South Boston, VA yesterday. Prizery Executive Director Chris Jones ran through the entire history of how the building came to be, how their foundation came up with financing, and how their community partners interact.

We stayed for an excellent dinner at Bistro 1888, then went on to see the Prizery’s staging of Greater Tuna. The committee was very impressed with both the quality of the performance space and the show. We can’t thank Chris enough for all of his time, and for helping to lead us down the path.

We got an exclusive tour of their Crossing of the Dan permanent exhibit. The exhibit recounts a key military event in the Revolutionary War that led to the American victory. This event is very interesting to us as Hillsborough residents, since Cornwallis passed through town during this campaign. We thought it would if we could set up a similar exhibit in Hillsborough. The grand opening for it is tomorrow, Saturday the 26th.

We will continue to be in touch with Chris as we continue our process.

P.S. There are two more shows of Greater Tuna this weekend, if you were thinking of driving to a great little town to take in dinner and a show.

Library tour

On Tuesday, July 22, members of the Cultural Center Committee toured the soon-to-be vacated Whitted building to see how it might work as a cultural center.  The Whitted building currently houses the Orange County central public library and the Department of Social Services.  We are thankful to Andrea Tullos, assistant to the Director of the library for the tour.

The committee took some of the preliminary measurements, and is seeking a more formal floor plan of the building.  The plans will be matched with the projected space needs for the center.

Trip to the Prizery-South Boston, VA

A group of 8 members of the Cultural Center Committee are heading to South Boston, Virginia tomorrow to learn about the Prizery.  The Prizery serves as a “welcome center, a performing arts theatre, an art gallery, classrooms and a large space for community functions.”  Renovated in 2002, the building is state-of-the art.

We will be speaking with Executive Director Chris Jones, who has seen the building of the Prizery from start to finish.  We go with a collection of questions, such as how they came to organize the Community Arts Center Foundation, which owns the Prizery.  The Foundation has several partner organizations, most of which have a seat on the board of the Foundation.