The Tidemark Theatre is building a wall – of silver, that is.
The Tidemark officially launches its capital campaign Feb. 16 to raise money for theatre improvements and is building a wall of silver bricks to kick it off.
The bricks are symbolic and are each worth $100.
Each person that “purchases” a brick will be rewarded with having his or her name on one of the paper silver bricks that are slowly climbing the wall in the theatre’s lobby.
“We started it halfway up the wall, in a little alcove,” said Kim Emsley-Leik, managing director of the Tidemark Theatre.
“Everyone gets acknowledged.”
The Tidemark is hoping to raise a minimum of $50,000 through community contributions, to go along with about $500,000 in grant monies the Tidemark has applied for.
Number one on the theatre’s improvement “wish list” is new seating in the theatre, to replace the original’s from 1947.
Kin Fowler, the president of the Tidemark Theatre Society board, said she also hopes to update the theatre’s lighting; install an in-hourse computerized ticketing system (right now tickets are printed in Vancouver); secure a new projector and screen; install monitors in the lobby and outside the building to promote upcoming shows; and re-do the concession.
The Tidemark has already secured $306,000 in grants from the Island Coast Economic Trust and the Coast Sustainability Trust but it needs to raise funds from the community as well in order to secure further grants.
“We have to show that the community is going to invest in the theatre,” Fowler said.
“So we have to raise a minimum of $50,000 from the community by March 31 or lose grant funding.”
The Tidemark hopes to sell 500 silver bricks to start off the capital campaign.
To purchase a brick call the Tidemark at (250) 287-7899 or stop by the theatre.