Paramount Theatre earns grant funding
By Becky Barclay
Published in News on April 8, 2015 1:46 PM
Full Size
News-Argus file photo
Pictured is the Paramount Theatre. The Paramount was recently awarded about $25,000 in grant money to supplement the cost of a professional dance company and for professional development.
Thanks to a three-year grant from South Arts, the Paramount Theatre will now be able to bring professional dance companies to Wayne County.
The Dance Touring Initiative will provide about $25,000 over the next three years for professional development for the Paramount staff and to supplement the cost of bringing professional dance companies here, said Paramount director Sherry Archibald.
"A professional dance company is a form of art that will add culture and new experiences to the community," she said. These could be anything from the St. Petersburg Ballet Co. to the Russian National Ballet to Ballet Memphis.
But first, the Paramount staff needs to make sure it gets the community involved in taking advantage of the performances.
"We need to educate them about what we're going to be bringing to Wayne County," Mrs. Archibald said. "I don't want to have a large investment in a dance company and have little audience. That's not being good stewards of our funds.
"The grant will help us get over several hurdles like how to engagement an audience and how to fill the theater, and it will give us knowledge about professional dance."
To do this, the grant provides funds for Mrs. Archibald and her staff to attend several dance festivals, the first being in August in Connecticut and another in September in Baltimore, Md.
There are nine other recipients across eight states. All 10 will attend the dance festivals together and have monthly conference calls.
"Attending the festivals will help us dive into really getting to know these artists and these professional dance companies," Mrs. Archibald said.
Being one of 10 recipients in this grant cycle, along with 16 from two other cycles, will also enable the Paramount to book dance companies with other venues to make it more affordable.
"If I think here is a particular company that will be the most well received here, then I'm going to have more chances to partner with other venues," Mrs. Archibald said. "It would cost an extreme amount of money to get a dance company to come to just Goldsboro. So we partner with others to block book."
Grant funds will also be used for an artistic director to come ahead of a professional dance group to see what's available at the Paramount as far as stage dimensions, lighting, etc.
"We could have to modify the performance for our stage if we can't get all of the dance company on our stage," Mrs. Archibald said. "But we'd still get the full benefit of the performance."
Part of the grant will also be used to offset the cost of bringing a professional dance company two Wayne County for the last two years of the grant. The Paramount would receive up to $8,000 a year for performances.
Benefits to Wayne County go well beyond just a professional performance.
"The dance companies are also big on residencies to interact with the community," Mrs. Archibald said. "The grant will enable us to offer an experience to a large number of dancers in this community to interact with professional dance companies that they would otherwise have to travel to participate in."
South Arts is an arts company that funnels grants to arts agencies in 13 states in the southeast. It expects that after three years, each recipient will be able to bring professional dance companies to its area on its own, using the knowledge gained through the grant.
"The bottom line is that it's advancing our cultural experience," Mrs. Archibald said.