by Sinclair Hamilton
The Hancock Arts Council celebrated the 25th Anniversary of our founding at the end of last month. Mayor Dan Murphy at that time, suggested the formation of the Arts Council in the year 2000. Our first event was a Winter Festival. We identified a need for a performing arts center and began planning and finding funds to renovate the auditorium at Town Hall. We finished renovating the auditorium in 2007 and our opening concert was in November of that year. That concert included: The Middle Senior High School Band, Tori Anderson and Possum Holler, Scenes from the musical Oklahoma by the Southern Fulton High School, music by the Arts Council Band and a recitation by Lowell Younker about an outhouse which we referred to as a talk on architecture and chemistry.
photo courtesy of Sinclair Hamilton
Since that time we have put on more than 145 free events including: two orchestra concerts by the Trinity Chamber Orchestra from D.C., A Hee Haw Musical which was standing room only, plays, photography contests, art shows, Winter Festivals, Barge Bashes, Magic Showcases – concerts of: bluegrass, blues, rock, folk, jazz, Tea Dances with the Tri-State Band, Civil War Music, a WWI music concert, Christmas singalongs, – quilt shows, belly dance shows, square dances, ukelele concerts, Christmas singalongs, readings of Dickens “A Christmas Carol” poetry workshops. We did a drama camp for kids and we have provided scholarships for music and drama camps in Berkeley Springs. One year we sent a teenager to an arts camp in Wyoming for two weeks including air fare.
We are a self-supporting group and in addition to putting on all of these events we also raised funds of over $180,000, to renovate the auditorium to turn it into a Performing Arts Center. At the time, the stage was blocked off and had two rooms using the stage, one where the police department stored their evidence and one where Debbie Cohill and the ISC had an office. Our work included refinishing the floor, installing curtains, lights, a sound booth and a sound system. We also bought and installed the stage projector as well as tables and chairs for the auditorium. Since then, we have brought thousands of people together to share experiences and have helped to build a strong community spirit. We were only able to do this with the help and support of the volunteers, musicians, and artists from our tristate region and to whom we are very grateful.
