Westmoreland Cultural Trust executive director Benjamin Luczak shows work completed in The Palace Theatre basement, including a new retaining wall and floor leveling.
Benjamin Luczak estimates the Westmoreland Cultural Trust has invested more than $1 million recently in upgrades and repairs at The Palace Theatre.
Luczak, CEO of the trust, expects it will make even more capital improvements at the Greensburg venue, as set forth in the nonprofit's new three-year strategic plan.
The plan also envisions expanding arts programming to some of Westmoreland County's outlying, underserved communities.
The trust's goals within the next 18 months include conducting a master plan for the four facilities it manages in Greensburg -- including the Greensburg Garden & Civic Center, the Stark/James Building and the Union Trust Building -- and a feasibility study and fundraising audit to assess a potential campaign for establishing an endowment.
"We do have some feelers out with some foundations for capital improvements we're working on," said Luczak. "The feasibility study will determine if we can actually do everything."
The trust, which had general operating revenues of about $8 million in 2024, has dipped into its reserve fund to address deferred maintenance at The Palace, according to Luczak.
Work at the theater has included replacing part of the roof, leveling basement flooring, reinforcing a retaining wall, replacing broken brick pavers with a new cement sidewalk, restoring the original ticket booth and installing new fire escape doors, a new projector and a new heating, ventilation and cooling system. The theater's Megan's Suite meeting and event space also received some upgrades.
The trust is hoping to have The Palace in top form by next year, when it will mark its centennial.
Still to come at the theater is the planned rollout of a mobile ticketing option. Luczak also would like to replace the orchestra seats and renovate the dressing rooms.
Event attendance increased from 75,586 in 2023 to 90,200 last year at the theater while that figure increased from 29,309 to 57,393 at the Garden & Civic Center.
Luczak attributed the rise at the latter facility to more aggressive staff efforts to book events and an improved space to accommodate them.
The trust has completed initial renovation of the civic center's penthouse suite, which previously had been office space, to host bridal showers and other gatherings of up to 150. Scenic views are among its attractions, Luczak said.
A grant from the local Katherine Mabis McKenna Foundation funded the work, with some money left over for more improvements.
"We hope to do the second phase by this summer," Luczak said. "We're going to raise the ceiling a little bit, because there are two different ceiling heights, and we're working on the rest rooms and the kitchen."
The Civic Center also houses a 300-seat auditorium and several tenants, including the Greensburg Civic Theatre and the Westmoreland Symphony and Academy of Music.
Last summer, the trust introduced the Old Salem Market on the center's grounds. It plans to continue the lineup of farm vendors and artisans on Sundays beginning June 8.
By bringing attention to the work of area artisans at the market, "We also can be a conduit to help stimulate the local economy," said Daniel Stainer, director of marketing and patron experience for the Westmoreland Cultural Trust.
The trust's strategic plan also calls for diversifying its program offerings, expanding its outreach and strengthening its partnerships with other organizations and community members.
Luczak said the trust particularly wants to engage with communities that have been identified by county planners as having a significant number of blighted properties and that also may be underserved with cultural programming.
Other than Greensburg, where trust activities already are based, Westmoreland communities targeted for blight remediation include Jeannette, Penn Borough, Arnold, New Kensington, Vandergrift and Monessen.
"We want to meet the people in their communities and engage them with programs of visual or performing arts," said Luczak. "You can do anything from circus acts to open mike night to bringing in a country band or a nostalgia band."
Other options might be offering summer camps or arts classes for various age groups, Stainer said.
Overseeing those outreach efforts will be a new trust staffer in the new position of education and engagement manager. The new hire also will take on oversight of some existing programs. They include Achievement in the Arts, an annual event at The Palace that honors students from 18 local high schools who have demonstrated artistic merit; and ArtsWalk, a free event in Greensburg that showcases young and emerging artists and includes live performances.
As February came to an end, Luczak was conducting a second round of interviews with candidates for the engagement manager role. He expects the position to be filled within the next month. "We want them to do an analysis of our existing engagement programs," he said.
The strategic plan was unanimously adopted in December by the Westmoreland Cultural Trust board of directors. It was developed in collaboration with Prouty Project, a Minneapolis-based creative design and consulting firm.
The trust has updated its website. Visit westmorelandculturaltrust.org for more information about the trust, its strategic plan and its operations in 2024.