The following piece was written by The Community Foundation's President & CEO, Peggy O'Shea, in honor of the grand re-opening of The Stanley Center for the Arts. It appeared in the Observer-Dispatch on April 18, 2008.

 

STANLEY IS PART OF OUR COMMUNITY'S SOUL

    After ten years of planning and a $20 million expansion, the Stanley Theatre is back and more vibrant than ever.

    The residents of the Mohawk Valley can - and should - take inspiration from the theater’s journey. Trustees, committees and staff of The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties felt so strongly that this project must succeed that we made a grant of $400,000, the largest in our history.

    The 400-plus guests at the grand re-opening reception on April 2 spoke volumes about the community’s sense of ownership in the project. It is much more than a building – it is a place that resonates with us all.

    As has been recounted often in media reports and personal anecdotes over the past several weeks, the Stanley was designed by renowned theater architect Thomas Lamb, who also designed the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse, Madison Square Garden, The Strand Theatre, several RKO Studio theaters and, collaborating with William Randolph Hearst, the Ziegfield Theatre. Utica’s Stanley Theatre rivals some of the most celebrated theater architecture in the United States. Many of these structural treasures have been closed or demolished, but not the Stanley. Why?

    The community rallied around this project because it is so much a part of who we are and what we aspire to be. The Stanley was built in 1927, in the midst of Prohibition, jazz music, flappers, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the dawn of new technologies such as film, radio and automobiles. Utica’s textile and other industries were booming, as was the population with approximately 100,000 residents.

    The Stanley’s “Mexican Baroque” style represented the prosperous spirit of the day. Franklin Delano Roosevelt campaigned for the presidency from the Hotel Utica. What a thrilling time! Then, on October 24, 1929, Black Thursday crashed the party.

    The market’s collapse began a time of ups-and-downs in our region. Industries came and industries went. The Stanley was about to fall victim to the wrecking ball when it was purchased by the Central New York Community Arts Council in 1974. Those affiliated with the Arts Council worked tirelessly to save it and understood its importance as a centrally located economic and cultural resource. Its role as a cultural destination for people living in communities in several counties cannot be underestimated. These individuals had a vision for the Stanley and realized that it was essential to community-wide self-esteem. They saved not only the building, but a piece of our collective identity. Surely, we owe them a debt of thanks.

    Architecture forms our identities as members of a community. One would be hard-pressed to find anyone in Herkimer or Oneida counties who does not have a special memory from the Stanley. For some, it is the memory of a performance, and for others it is one of performing onstage. Some have attended corporate events in the lobby and some even were married there. Long-established cultural mainstays such as Munson-Williams-Proctor’s Great Artist Series, the Broadway Theatre League and the Utica Symphony Orchestra call the Stanley “home.” Those memories and experiences are entwined with our lives and identities. The building means something to each of us.

    When the call to support the Stanley was sounded in 1998, individuals, elected officials, foundations, corporations, banks and organizations such as The Community Foundation answered wholeheartedly. The project was much more than an increase in square footage; it provided a rallying point, with the trustees and staff of the Arts Council leading the course and renewing widespread interest in the theater. The choice was made to revitalize, and that was the right decision.

We look at the Stanley and see ourselves in its grand setting; it is a setting where we have always felt awed yet welcome. We see the optimism of its original builders and audience, and of the age that produced it. We have created that optimism again. One need only look at the Stanley to feel inspired and uplifted.  It is a monument to accomplishment. And our community made it happen.