The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the Market House Theatre in Paducah an ‘Our Town’ grant of $75,000 in support of the theater’s ‘Next Stage Campaign.’
The grant is one of 89 the NEA is awarding to similar projects throughout the U.S. The Next Stage Campaign is a multi-million dollar project that involves additions to the Paducah community theater campus and renovations and expansions of existing spaces.
Campaign Co-Chair Kristin Williams says of the grant, “It is an honor to have been selected as one out of 274 projects that applied for this national grant this year. The Theatre has been committed to the Market House Square for many years and this project allows us to better utilize the existing performance space there, as well as to create additional state-of-the-art classroom, performance and rehearsal spaces in the other buildings the Theatre owns."
The campaign plans to double the stage size and audience capacity of the Studio Theatre, and add four classrooms, two new rehearsal spaces and an off-site shop for set construction. Many of the additions will be constructed in historic buildings in the Market House Square.
The Kentucky Arts Council is also receiving an Our Town grant of $731,900.
