City of Rexburg receives $50,000 grant to fund theater stage
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REXBURG — The proposed Center Street Plaza in Rexburg is one step closer to becoming a reality as the City of Rexburg has received a $50,000 grant from T-Mobile.
As part of T-Mobile’s $25 million Hometown Grants program, the donation will help to fund a stage on the back of the Romance Theater. In the process, this project will continue to develop The Romance as the beating heart of cultural arts in Rexburg.
“(T-Mobile) awarded Hometown Grants to 25 different cities for different projects that would enhance the community,” Rexburg Cultural Arts Director Jed Platt told EastIdahoNews.com. “We wrote our grant for our Center Street Plaza as a gathering place and in their comments, (T-Mobile) said it was the most well-written grant.”
The Hometown Grant program is open to cities with populations of fewer than 50,000 people and a vision for projects that strengthen their communities. The program began in April of 2021 and has so far distributed over $3.3 million to small cities in 35 states, with plans to continue awarding grants to 25 cities every quarter through 2026.
Platt said that Rexburg Arts will use the money to build one of the more unique performance venues in east Idaho: a vertical stage.
“The Romance is the hub for cultural arts here in Rexburg so we were looking at how to create and expand what we offer here,” Platt said. “With that space, we’ve got a big blank wall. The building’s a historic building, so we can’t do much alteration to it. Because of alleyway access, we can’t go out. So, instead of a deep stage, we’re going to go up. There will be landings and stairwells going to other levels, so we can really create some dynamic programming.”
“This expands our capacity for programming, to do some outside,” he added. “It will be a year-round stage. During summertime, we’ll bring in some street concerts and in the winter, when we do our Christmas tree lighting on the plaza, we’ll have choirs and things like that as programming, as well.”
Just the concept of a vertical stage is already enticing to local performers.
“We’ve already had a few bands that we’ve been speaking who we’ve said ‘We just want to come play the wall because that’s so cool to do it that way and the challenge of it’,” said Platt.
Platt also said that the renovations at The Romance are only a small part of what the city wants to do to develop the Center Street area.
“The city has a lot of plans for Center Street,” he said. “You’ll see quite a few changes in the coming years. We want people to know that they’re welcome downtown and that (Center Street) is a gathering place.”
Platt thanked T-Mobile for helping to enable Rexburg Arts to move forward with the stage project and said that he hopes to begin the project later this year so that the stage is usable by Christmas.
You can keep tabs on future cultural arts events in Rexburg by visiting the Rexburg Arts website or Facebook page.
