JUPITER ― The Maltz Jupiter Theatre is celebrating its 10th anniversary by breaking ground on a new expansion project.
Earlier this year, a $1.5 million donation was offered as a challenge grant by founding board member Roe Green and her foundation. The grant goes toward the $2.5 million needed to complete the renovation project. The Maltz has currently raised an additional $800,000 for the project.
“The addition of 62 seats in our theater will mean more than 7,000 additional seats per season, and it has the potential to add more than $350,000 in earned revenue each year,” said Tricia Trimble, managing director for the Maltz, in a news release. “We are almost there, and just need to raise the additional $200,000 to complete the theater’s renovations this summer.”
Renovations include the addition of 62 new seats to create an upstairs club level lounge on the theatre’s second floor, as well as executive offices and expansions to the lobby, bar and restrooms, all accessed via a private entrance with a glass elevator. The ground floor’s lobby and restrooms will also be expanded.
Jupiter Mayor Karen Golonka recently honored the Maltz at an annual volunteer appreciation event with a ceremonial “key to the city” and the commemoration of a “Maltz Jupiter Theatre Week” to be held in February.
“The Maltz Jupiter Theatre has become a much-loved institution and is indeed a ‘jewel of Jupiter’ that continues to lift our spirits and challenge our imagination,” Golonka said at the event. “A community without the arts is a community that has lost its soul and its opportunity to experience beauty and wonder.”
Currently the largest award-winning regional theater in Florida, the Maltz attracts over 70,000 annual visitors. Construction is expected to be complete by early October. Tickets for the 2013/14 season are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the box office at 561-575-2223 or online at www.jupitertheatre.org.
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South Florida Symphony gets challenge grant
FORT LAUDERDALE ― A donation to the South Florida Symphony has inspired a $30,000 Spring Fever Challenge.
Joseph Griffin, a retired Wall Street financier, and Mary Lou Schillinger, his partner and a long time Ocean Ridge philanthropist, have donated $10,000 to the orchestra. This seed money has been put toward the Spring Fever Challenge, which it plans to meet by April 9.
“When we learned about this amazingly generous gift, I was moved and grateful for the extraordinary benevolence shown for our mission and the communities we serve,” said Jacqueline Lorber, CEO and president of the South Florida Symphony, in a news release. “This matching challenge gift, and the donors who join us, make it possible for SFSO to continue to bring the music to the stage that inspires us.”
Griffin grew up in a family of music lovers and played trumpet while in high school. “I have an undying devotion to the arts and love the unique sound of the South Florida Symphony,” he said in a news release. “I am also determined to have professional symphonic music throughout the region.”
Each donation to the Symphony will help the orchestra offer different services:
· $125 will provide underwriting for one musician to educate children at one youth concert.
- $250 will provide housing for two musicians during one concert week.
- $500 will provide transportation for students to attend one concert.
- $1,200 will ensure support of one musician for one symphonic concert.
- $2,500 will provide support for the Music Educators to visit 2,000 children at their school.
- $5,000 will offset housing costs during concert week.
- $10,000 will underwrite one Youth Concert for 1,000 children.
“We are your orchestra,” said Lorber. “We couldn’t do as much as we do without generous gifts like this.”
Donations will be matched by the Spring Fever Challenge. Gifts can be mailed to South Florida Symphony Orchestra, 221 SW 3rd Ave., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312 or made online at www.southfloridasymphony.org/springfeverchallenge. For more information, call 954-522-8445.
— Compiled by Katherine Concepcion