Nonprofit group announces plan to purchase Astra Theatre

Jim O’Neal, News Director of WITZ AM/FM contributed to this story.

A new nonprofit, Next Act, Inc., is being formed with intentions to purchase the Astra Theatre.

Information about their plan and the people involved is available here.

Marc Steczyk, a member of the core group forming the nonprofit, announced the new organization being formed and asked for the continued support of the Jasper Community Arts Commission during the commission’s regular meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Initial plans call for the Jasper Community Arts Commission and Next Act, Inc. to work together for the future use of the theater.

The nonprofit group has already started to form the 501(c)3 tax exempt organization and plans on fundraising over the next 18 months to purchase the theater and complete the necessary renovations. They will also create an endowment to assist in the future improvements identified in the Jasper Downtown Master Plan completed by CityVision and Gamble and Associates.

“We are still in the forming stages of the actual group but we have a very solid core committee comprised of myself, Leslie Hamby, Jay Hamlin, Courtney Knies, and Eddie Luegers,” Steczyk said Tuesday.

Steczyk explained the group is working on a harmonious relationship with the arts commission to assist in the development and operation of the theater. While the new nonprofit would work on funding the theater, its management would likely be worked out through an operational lease with the Jasper Arts Department.

The Jasper Community Arts Commission had announced its desire to possibly purchase and operate the theater. In September, the commission voted to approved the purchase of the building, but the matter had not been considered by the Jasper Common Council.

Tuesday, after hearing Steczyk’s announcement, the arts commission rescinded its previous decision so the new nonprofit could move forward unencumbered.

“The arts commission would like to manage the Astra and we don’t care who owns it,” Mike Jones, president of the Jasper Community Arts Commission, said. “We just think it is a resource that will expand the arts in the county. It also dovetails very well with Jasper’s plan to develop the downtown.”

The potential new ownership will allow the nonprofit to seek grants to update and improve the historic theater.

The Dubois County Community Foundation, who assisted in two highly successful events held at the Astra in May, has been interested in facilitating an endowment to assist in the purchase and maintenance of the theater. In testament to the community support for the theater, many businesses and contractors came forward to provide free labor and at-cost materials to get the theater up to standards for the two shows. This community support further invigorated the foundation’s efforts and paved the way for the creation of the new nonprofit announced today.

“This is a tremendous win-win,” said Community Foundation Executive Director Brad Ward. “It couldn’t be done in the private sector – or it hasn’t been done for 13 years – and the foundation doesn’t support taxpayers purchasing assets without a plan for an endowment to maintain those assets. This puts it back in the charitable sector.”

“You have young professionals coming together to try to do something and they need the expertise and the infrastructure of something like the Jasper Community Arts Commission to get it done,” Ward continued. “And, the JCAC is accepting them with open arms.”

According to Steczyk, the core committee is made up of a diverse group of citizens of the county which includes individuals from Jasper, Huntingburg, and Ferdinand. Their goal is to create an asset to help attract new people and talent to the area to increase the local employee-pool for businesses and manufacturers who are currently clambering to fill nearly a thousand jobs over the next three years.

“We see a need in this county for culture and it is backed up in all the community reports,” Steczyk said. “What better place is there than the square that surrounds the Dubois County Courthouse for a group that is very civic-minded in nature to work on a cultural asset for our county?”