Arts & Entertainment

PMAC to Hold Grand Opening Celebration Saturday

The music and arts center recently moved into its new home at 973 Islington St.

Submitted by the Portsmouth Music & Arts Center:

On Saturday March 15th from 11am - 4pm Portsmouth Music & Arts Center invites the greater Seacoast community to join them in the grand opening of their new home at 973 Islington Street in Portsmouth. The free event will feature live music including a student recital and open rehearsals by PMAC’s Bow Street Youth Orchestra and Youth Jazz Band. Visitors will be able to meet PMAC faculty, make art in the new visual arts studios, explore an “instrument petting zoo”, see and hear digital music studio demonstrations, participate in an interactive Kindermusik demonstration class for families with young children, and enjoy refreshments, door-prizes and more.

It wasn’t long after PMAC first opened in 2003 that the limits of their first space started to be realized. “Our Albany Street building served us very well for many years in a building that was never meant to see 500 students a week or function as a community music and visual arts school,” notes board President Maria Sillari, “The fact that PMAC was able to deliver the level of high quality programs for as long as it did is a tribute to the incredibly talented founders – Russ and Katie Grazier – and to the generosity and flexibility of our landlords, the Ricci family.” Treasurer Steven Scott echoed Sillari’s statements, “PMAC started in a building and made it work for its programming, but the new building on Islington Street was designed with PMAC’s use in mind.”

PMAC’s hunt for a new home was not without it’s stumbling blocks. Finding a building that met the size requirements of the school that could also be reasonably renovated and purchased would prove to be a challenge. Several buildings were considered but the timing was never quite right. Then in the summer of 2012 the property at 973 Islington came into the picture.

“I’m pretty pragmatic – not one who says ‘it was meant to be’- but from the moment we started the journey with this building it seemed like it found us as much as we found it,” Sillari recalls, “We would reach a critical point along the way and not know how timing or financing or logistics could possibly work, and then something would happen to allow us to proceed.”

With their sights set on this new home, PMAC embarked on a $1.9 million campaign to purchase and renovate the building. PMAC continues to fundraise to meet the campaign goal but has successfully funded the core aspects of the renovation and purchased the building with a mortgage as of December 2013. “With collaborative financing from The Provident Bank and Optima Bank & Trust we were able to secure a mortgage that allowed us to purchase the building earlier than expected,” says Executive Director Russ Grazier. “We are continuing to seek support that would allow us to own the building without debt, but for the time being PMAC will be secure in its new home.”

“This project would never have happened without broad-based community support from a variety of sources,” says Grazier. Pivotal moments included the awarding of a tax credit grant from the NH Community Development Finance Authority that led to more than $350,000 in funding from nearly 30 local corporations and businesses. In May, local philanthropist Thomas Haas came forward with a $150,000 gift from his fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF). Haas’ gift launched a successful 2013, a year that included significant support from many NHCF Funds including the Dan & Blythe Brown Foundation Fund, The Josephine A. Lamprey Fund, the Barbara K. and Cyrus B. Sweet III Fund and many others.

Grazier added, “In addition to the wonderful support we’ve received from the Charitable Foundation, we launched a successful crowdfunding effort on our website in May 2013, allowing everyone in the community to play a role in this effort.” Other key funders include the Ruth W. Brown Foundation of Connecticut, and Pike Sullivan, who named a music studio as a 9/11 memorial, citing the importance of music in the lives of today’s children as we move forward in a post-9/11 world.

"The new Portsmouth Music and Arts Center is designed to be a cultural hub for the entire community where we will continue to offer music and arts education programs for everyone - whether novice, intermediate or professional, youth or adult,” says Grazier, “We are excited to welcome the entire community into this new space and look forward to many years of serving the greater Seacoast."

For more info about PMAC’s Grand Opening Celebration and the full day schedule, visit www.pmaconline.org or call 603-431-4278.


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