Congratulations to the entire 275th committee for all your efforts in planning and coordinating a most wonderful 275th celebration on a picture perfect day!
Centennial Hall had a tremendously successful open house.
It is estimated that more than 250 visitors come to: view the art, be bedazzled with glitter, see the ballet dancers, and listen to the various musical performances that were offered. Our tenants, the Seacoast Academy of Music, and the Brush and Palette, made an outstanding effort to put together a beautiful backdrop to showcase the building. Body Barre dancers fit in beautifully to the schedule and were enthusiastically received. And as expected, Monica Leo of Trading Faces facepainting had a steady stream of little faces (and arms & hands) to adorn.
With guidance from our greatly supportive Fire Department, we opened our back stairwell, building a new set of stairs to address easement issues for the volume of tours we anticipated. And that assumption was correct. Carolyn and Sue Brooks conducted a dozen full building tours, many with residents that had never seen our upper levels. It’s an inspiring experience for us when people first realize the magnitude of the resource that’s hidden away up those stairs. The addition of the enchanting red brick school house out front, and the magnificent Hobbs painting in our main studio, greatly complemented the historical picture they were able to draw for those touring.
As you know the mission of the FOCH is to return the building to a fully functioning community resource for the arts – and on Saturday, October 14th, even with our limitations, we were most definitely so!@yahoo.com
