The Bascom welcomes community partners to discuss new opportunities
In a season earmarked for celebration, The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts celebrated the area’s local nonprofit organizations during an afternoon networking get-together in the main gallery on Monday.
“We opened up all the galleries and invited our local nonprofit partners in to tell us what they’ve been up to for the past year and what we can look forward to in 2020,” said Billy Love, Director of Education with The Bascom, who got the evening started.
Bascom Executive Director Teresa Osborn said Highlands is fortunate to have organizations like those in attendance.
“This community is really extraordinary because of the nonprofits, because of the people that work for, and with, them both on staff and board… and The Bascom has the privilege of working with you, and you get the privilege of working with each other. I look forward to hearing about all of the things coming up.”
About 30 nonprofit board members and staff joined Osborn in a light refreshment afternoon gathering to reconnect and give others in the community an idea about what’s been going on and what’s in store the coming year.
Highlands Performing Arts Center Mary Adair Trumbly gave an update on progress with the new PAC, answering the question, “When will the new theater be finished?”
“We will have three new theaters and are joining with the Highlands Playhouse to have all of Highlands’ performing arts under one roof,” she said.
Construction has been completed on phase one of the new parking lot and preliminary work is underway on the new PAC expansion that is set to get underway in the coming year, Trumbly said.
Hudson Library Librarian Carlyn Morenus said the library continues to be a busy place through the holiday season.
“We have many of our programs for the children ongoing through the holidays,” she said. “The library collaborates with just about everybody in attendance here and we greatly value these partnerships with our nonprofit organizations.”
Morenus added, the library entered into three new partnerships with local nonprofit organizations during The Bascom event.
On Wednesday, Dec. 18, the Hudson Library will show a locally produced movie filmed in Clayton, Georgia titled “Christmas on the Range.” Showtime for the film is 2 p.m. and is free of charge.
New Highlands Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kaye McHan introduced herself and praised last weekend’s Highlands Olde Mountain Christmas Parade.
“We’re doing a lot of work on what’s working and what we want to add, and I hope you enjoyed the weather for the Christmas parade we ordered that special this year to replace what happened last year. Seriously, I’m very excited about being here… and working with many of you. Nonprofit is very near and dear to my heart.”
Highlands Biological Station Director Jim Costa said construction on the Lindenwood Lake campus expansion is almost completed.
“We had three major construction projects going over the last year and we’ve finished with two of them,” Costa said. “We’ve overhauled some of the older and more sizable dorms at the Biological Station. We’ve also just built a brand new state of the art aquatics laboratory. And we have this fabulous outdoor classroom and pollinator garden with boardwalk around the dam area on Lindenwood Lake. This is all a very much work in progress.”