PORT ANGELES — This movie has a happy ending in other Western towns. Now let’s make it happen here.
Such will be the message Thursday as speakers from around the state discuss the Lincoln Theater, Port Angeles’ shuttered movie house.
Karen Hanan, executive director of ArtsWA, the state’s Arts Commission; Linda and Scot Whitney, artistic directors of Olympia’s Harlequin Productions; and Scott Nagel, head of the Light Up the Lincoln campaign, will discuss the theater’s future and answer questions during the 6 p.m. public forum. Refreshments will be laid out in the upstairs conference room at The Landing mall, 115 E. Railroad Ave.
So far Nagel, director of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival held here every October, made a $235,000 offer last winter on the Lincoln, which is owned by Sun Basin Theatres of Wenatchee. So far he’s raised $175,000 in his bid to purchase the theater and convert it to a nonprofit performing arts center for concerts, film festivals, plays and company parties.
Nagel and his wife and business partner Karen Powell have developed plans for a 440-seat venue with a 30-by-30-foot stage, a traditional wide screen for movies, a concessions area and space for a dance floor and cabaret tables. The layout, renovation budget and other details — with a pledge form — can be found at RevitalizePortAngeles.org via the “Revitalize PA Projects” heading. Nagel, meanwhile, encourages anyone interested in the project to contact him at 360-808-3940 or lightupthelincoln@gmail.com.
As they seek the remaining $60,000 in pledges toward a community-supported venue — which they would run along with a board of directors — Nagel and Powell are bringing Hanan, also the founder of Port Angeles’ nonprofit Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, to talk about something called the “creative economy.”
This, Hanan said, is a given community’s mix of arts-related jobs and earnings: from architects and graphic artists to photographers, musicians and others engaged in creative work.
Hanan will present data on the creative economy today in Clallam County — which she figures will surprise people. This sector is larger than many think it is, she said.
“I’ll briefly run through case studies, five of them, focusing on the arts and culture as part of revitalizing the [local] economy,” she added. Hanan will wrap up her 30-minute presentation by explaining the Building for the Arts grants available from the state. The Lincoln, once it has been purchased, could apply for such a grant to cover 20 percent of its project costs.
Rural places such as this have a good chance at the funding; “the state is very keen to give money outside King County,” Hanan added.
The Whitneys from Olympia will offer a 15-minute talk on their building for the arts: the State Theater, an old movie house they turned into a venue for musicals and other stage plays.
Boarded up and abandoned in 1996, the theater is now where Harlequin presents a full season of shows, from Shakespeare to Neil Simon to “Something Wicked Improv.”
Thursday’s forum will be open till 8 p.m. to allow plenty of time for questions and discussion, Powell emphasized.
“It’s really important,” she said, “for people to challenge, ask questions and push back.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.