Art Center And Stage Company To Merge Boards

The boards of the Blowing Rock Stage Company and the Blowing Rock Community Arts Center Foundation have worked together to create a regional center for the performing arts since 2001. That dream culminated in the construction and opening of the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock in August, 2006.
The Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock:
• Brings exciting arts programming to the High Country/Foothills region.
• Provides educational outreach to the five county area surrounding the Center in the public schools and brings young people as well
as adults to the Hayes Center to experience live performance as well as enhance their arts education
• Provides a permanent home to the Blowing Rock Stage Company, a professional resident company operating in Blowing Rock for the past 21 years
With the opening of the Hayes Center, the two boards have elected to form one merged board operating as the Blowing Rock Community Arts Center Foundation. The Blowing Rock Stage Company retains its name and its mission to provide live, professional theatre to the region. Some members of the Stage Company board will be joining the Foundation Board. Others will be joining two newly formed advisory councils to advise the Hayes Center’s leadership on programming and community outreach. This merger will be effective on March 31, 2007.
“We believe this new structure affords the most efficient and effective business and programming model for the continued success of the Hayes Performing Arts Center in Blowing Rock,” said Chip Williamson, Chairman of the Foundation Board. “We will continue to be home to the Blowing Rock Stage Company, but we will also strive to bring in unique and notable performances and performers from outside our region.”
“With this merger, everyone wins, the Blowing Rock Stage Company, the Hayes Center and the residents of the region,” said Judy Domer, President of the Blowing Rock Stage Company Board. “Our professional productions will be even better than they have been in the past and we can carry out another of our core missions, community outreach, in a more effective manner. The Stage Company’s community outreach programs allow us to take theatre into elementary, middle and high schools in the region, as well as to bring residents from the region, both youth and adults, to the Center to hone their performing skills, learn what it takes to create professional theatre, and see professional live theatre in action. Our entire mission will be enhanced.”
In summary, this merger provides the foundation for great opportunities for the Hayes Center and the region it serves. It also brings renewed vigor to the Stage Company.
“Most importantly, it assures the future of professional theatre and education in the performing arts for the residents of our High Country and foothills region,” Domer said.. “We’re extremely excited about the furure of arts.”