FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2008
Contact:
Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission: Jessica Fagan – 614.995.7552; jfagan@culture.ohio.gov
Beck Center for the Arts: Yvette Hanzel – 216-521-2540, x22; Yvette@beckcenter.org
Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission Approves
$100,000 for Beck Center for the Arts
Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission approved $100,000 at its quarterly meeting today for the Beck Center for the Arts.
The Beck Center for the Arts serves over 65,000 people each year through professional theater productions and curriculum-based arts education programs in dance, music, theater and the visual arts, as well as creative arts therapies for special-needs patrons. The arts center will utilize state funds to replace the roof on one of its buildings, which houses the music education program, and to replace one of the units of its 30-year-old heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the main building with a new, more energy-efficient system.
The Commission approval, coupled with the signing of legal agreements, allows the Beck Center to be reimbursed on a pro rata basis with funds appropriated in Am. Sub. H.B. 16 of the 126th General Assembly. Cuyahoga County General Assembly members who voted in favor of the bill include Senators Lance Mason, Dale Miller, Shirley Smith, Robert Spada, and Timothy Grendell; former Senators Eric Fingerhut and C.J. Prentiss; Representatives Michael DeBose, Timothy DeGeeter, Michael Foley, Thomas Patton, Michael Skindell, and Kenneth Yuko; and former Representatives Annie Key, Sally Conway Kilbane, James Trakas, and Claudette Woodard.
The Ohio Cultural Facilities Commission is a state agency that helps enhance the quality of life for Ohioans by improving the state’s cultural facilities. Since 1988, the Commission has disbursed nearly $400 million of capital funds appropriated by the legislature and Governor for facility improvement projects at non-profit theaters, museums, historical sites and publicly owned professional sports venues.
The Commission partners with non-profit groups and local governments on nearly 250 projects in 65 of Ohio’s 88 counties. For more information on the Commission, visit www.culture.ohio.gov.
