Board helps keep the Calumet Theatre thriving
Board helps keep the Calumet Theatre thriving
By KURT HAUGLIE
DMG Writer
CALUMET — As happens every year, the Calumet Theatre Board of Directors is welcoming new members to help guide the direction the 106-year-old facility will take regarding presentations and preservation.
Jim Lowell, executive director of the Calumet Theatre Co., said every year five seats on the 19-member board are up for election for three-year terms. On June 26, incumbents Jim Lowrie of Eagle River and Babette Jokela of Calumet were re-elected. Art Limback of Hubbell, Dick Schaefer of Lac La Belle and Jane Zutter of Houghton are the new members.
Lowell said outgoing Board Chairman Bill Fink chose not to run again because he wants to give more time to his business.
“I think he felt he couldn’t give the theatre the attention it deserved,” Lowell said.
At a subsequent meeting, board members elected officers for the upcoming year, including Chairwoman Carole Baranowski, Vice Chair Deb Aubin and Marge Bertucci was re-elected secretary/treasurer.
Lowell said the theatre building is owned by the Village of Calumet, and the board of directors was formed in the early 1980s to guide its use.
Deciding what acts to hire for the theatre is a joint effort of the board and the artistic director, who currently is Davey Holmbo, Lowell said.
The presentations budget is only about 40 percent of the total budget, Lowell said. Most of what they do is preservation.
“We don’t make a significant amount of money on our shows,” Lowell said. “Basically, they pay for themselves.”
Lowell said the Calumet Theatre is one of the cooperating sites in the Keweenaw National Historical Park, and the board often seeks historic preservation grants for work on the building.
One of the changes the board and village government are considering for the building is the installation of a handicapped-accessible elevator to the second floor.
An idea being considered at one time was to install a chair-type lift on the stairway to the second floor, Lowell said. That idea has fallen out of favor with the board, however, after two members who are handicapped suggested a better system be found.
“They felt that wouldn’t be a good solution,” he said.
The idea now under consideration is to install a full-size elevator in the space currently occupied by a restroom in the lobby.
Presentations and preservation are both needed for the continued existence of the Calumet Theatre building, Lowell said.
“You gotta be using it to keep it alive,” he said.
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