BrattleBoro Arts Initiative
Spell Check! A Spelling Bee for Grown-ups
Brattleboro Arts Initiative's first annual spelling bee was a grand success! Thank you to those who participated in the crack spelling teams. Thanks, too, to the interactive audience! We hear a great time was had by all. The winning team was "To Bee or Not to Bee" sponsored by New England Youth Theatre - Rick Barron, Jerry Stockman and Lisa Cox - who will be memorialized on the Latchis Theatre marquee.
Spell Check! was a benefit for a grant we are trying to match from the Thomas Thompson Trust. We can still use your help. Support the effort! Donate Now!
Creating space for the arts
Once upon a time, in an era of elegance and style, a splendid structure was built on the corner of Main and Flat Streets, in the heart of Brattleboro, Vermont. The Latchis family, looking for a way to say thank you to its adopted country, couldn’t have found a more spectacular way to do so. In 1938, this stately jewel of a building became home to the Latchis Hotel and Theatre and became the family’s signature holding, dubbed “A Town within a Town, Under one Roof."
Built as a monument to the moderne, the sleek Latchis Hotel and Theatre opened to great fanfare and has played to appreciative audiences ever since. The hotel’s rooms were designed to provide comfort with style to the new generation of sojourners who came to Brattleboro for the cultural nourishment provided by the town’s arts and culture scene, even then. The cool, cavernous theatre, with soaring arched ceiling, seemed to touch the sky – a perfect palace for performance, live or on celluloid, the perfect place to dream one’s own dreams.
So it was, until the time came in 2003 for the Latchis family to pass their legacy along to Brattleboro Arts Initiative.
Fast Forward ...
Brattleboro Arts had an excellent 2008.
· Starting the year right, on January 2 the Vermont Humanities Council brought Ken Burns to the Main Stage. Bookended by December's performance of Nowell Sing We Clear, in 2008 the Latchis hosted upwards of 40 special Live at the Latchis and film events, meetings, conferences, and gala parties throughout all three theatres and Latchis 4. Notable among them, Pete Seeger and Family, Richard Thompson, Scott Ainslie, old favorite Collegiate a Capella and new favorite Collegiate Gospel. Also Love Letters, Capitol Steps, Childsplay, Brattleboro Concert Choir’s African Sanctus, Windham Orchestra’s Listen Local, and Hugh Keelan Ensemble’s Suor Angelica. Exciting plans for 2009 are in the making! Check for latest listings at www.latchis.com.
· The project to replace our dear original Otis elevator with a modern, handicapped accessible elevator began in earnest, following several years of behind the scenes raising of funds. Brattleboro Arts Initiative is grateful to the Thomas Thompson Trust, U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, Vermont Arts Council, State of Vermont Historic Tax Credit Program, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for recognizing how crucial infrastructure is to our big picture.
· We launched the Latchis Restoration Project – a Campaign for Community, Culture and Commerce. At $930,000 it is an ambitious undertaking, but guess what – we’re almost half way there!
· The Latchis turned 70. To help us celebrate, the amazing folks at the Thomas Thompson Trust issued a $150,000 Challenge Grant, matching every donation received now for the Campaign dollar for dollar, turning $150,000 into $300,000. No donation is too large or too small to help us achieve the challenge prize, and nothing could be easier than making a secure donation on-line (button below), or print out a donation form and send it to us in the mail.
· We entered the youtube generation with a video produced by BAI President Ben James and Vice President Lisa Bloch. Celebrating seventy years of the Latchis and its place in Brattleboro today, it is not to be missed - click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkX_8aN53BU
Looking to 2009, well you know - we’re nothing if not optimistic! These are the truths we hold to be self-evident….
· We will host lively and interesting special events on the Main Stage and in Latchis 4.
· We will show the best first run, art and independent films in town.
· We will continue our efforts for Brattleboro Arts Initiative and the Latchis Restoration Project; and with your help we’ll meet the Thomas Thompson Trust’s $150,000 challenge and beyond.
· We will continue to work with this bighearted and creative community to make the arts ever more central to life in Southern Vermont.
So here we are ...
...five years down the road, enjoying the support of loyal and generous friends who appreciate how arts and culture strengthen and enliven our world; who admire a good Art Deco landmark building; and who realize that keeping it all afloat is an investment in the community and the region.
