Marathon Center for the Performing Arts and Findlay Light OperCompany a Receive National Endowment for the Arts Grant
Findlay, Ohio— The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding Marathon Center for the Performing Arts and Findlay Light Opera Company a grant of $10,000 to support a community production of The Music Man.
“All Americans should have access to the arts,” said Mary Anne Carter, acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “Grants such as this one to MCPA and FLOC are an important part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ work to ensure people in communities both large and small across the nation have the opportunity to experience the arts.”
“As we celebrate our thirty-second anniversary in 2020, we are filled with joy as FLOC has “come home” to Central Auditorium – now the acclaimed Marathon Center for the Performing Arts. We offer our gratitude to the board and staff of MCPA for sharing our desire to bring community theatre to MCPA. We are thrilled for this partnership with MCPA and to have been awarded this grant from the National Endowment for the Arts,” stated Zachary Thomas, president of FLOC.
Formerly Central Middle School, Marathon Center for the Performing Arts emerged when the building was slated to be demolished and a dedicated group of citizens organized themselves around the mission to “Save Central.” Just four years later, MCPA hosts over 300 events each year including everything from performances by rock-n-roll legends, Chicago, and country music superstar, Darius Rucker, to pre-school graduation ceremonies and weddings. With a full slate of entertainment, education and outreach programming, MCPA is truly a community performing arts center.
The Findlay Light Opera Company was founded on March 15, 1988. Since that time, FLOC has contributed to the community’s rich theatre history through thirty operettas and musicals, providing performing opportunities for hundreds of actors, musicians and technical crews, and entertained thousands of families, friends, and neighbors.
Financial challenges, the Flood of 2007, which caused the loss almost all property, and the closing of Central Auditorium, threatened FLOC’s future, but a dream that the organization would once again flourish transcended these losses and the plans to create a grand performing arts center in Findlay motivated the organization’s founders to hold onto their vision.
About the National Endowment for the Arts
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities. Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the Arts Endowment supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit arts.gov to learn more.
