By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Dirk Koning, first executive director of the Community Media Center, had a vision to turn the dilapidated Wealthy Theatre into a gathering space where the community could not only enjoy a show, concert or event in a state-of-the-art theater, but could use that space and equipment to put on an event of their choice with the added freedom to be in charge of its content and delivery.
That vision, now realized in the restoration of the century old theatre, and the legacy Koning left after his death in 2005 is honored in the creation of a two-fold memorial: the Koning Micro-Cinema completed last year and the proposed Dirk Koning Memorial Garden Walkway.
Garden construction takes place this summer and features a handicap-accessible circular walkway/ramp leading to the theatre’s stage door and the micro-cinema. Peace poles, plants, benches, and a stone pathway mark the garden as a quiet space.
Koning often told the “bell story”—a personal experience in Africa that taught him the importance of listening to a community’s needs. Inside the micro-cinema is a wall of handmade bells, donated and hung in Koning’s honor.
“The 60-seat micro-cinema was the result of us listening to the community’s needs,” says Erin Wilson, theatre director. “Organizations wanted to use a video/audio space that was small and affordable. To have 30 or 50 people in the larger main theatre made a small event look like it was a failure, when it actually was a success.
“Three years after acquiring the Wealthy Theatre, we’re still learning how brilliant it was that Dirk saw the opportunities for a media center to make this space more relevant,” Wilson adds. “We’ve installed this quality equipment and Internet and now it’s a groundbreaking historical theatre. I suspect Dirk knew that.”
Source: Erin Wilson, Wealthy Theatre (courtesy photo)
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Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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