Fire Consumes Arts Center

There is something not quite right about shopping for Christmas wrapping paper in 80-degree weather, but today in San Diego that's what I did. Meanwhile, a text message from my brother informs me that it's snowing in Middle Tennessee right now.

A few days ago, my brother sent another message, bearing harder news. On Sunday night, a fire broke out at the Manchester Arts Center, completely destroying the building which had been used as a playhouse and art gallery for nearly 11 years.

Sandwiched rurally equidistant between Nashville and Chattanooga, the area's arts community suffered a great loss Sunday. Friends who stood for nearly six hours in 20-degree temperatures watching firefighters lose the offensive battle to save the building and begin a defensive one to keep the fire from spreading to other businesses were quoted in the week's news as having watched something akin to their home burn down. For many, the Arts Center was indeed a home away from home. Myself, for a time, included. I once served on the its playhouse board and helped to chaperone a sleep-over for the Teen Actor's Guild there, I performed two shows on its stage and mastered properties for a third, and I met wonderful people who were working diligently to bring cultural opportunities to the area.

A friend with family in the area sent this picture of the aftermath. What still stands is no more than an empty dance studio. The rubble once housed a large and newly renovated lobby, the Martin Art Gallery, the theatre, expensive lighting and sound equipment, dressing rooms, props and set storage, costume collections, and one of the area's largest personal collections of scripts and music. Plus many, many memories.

There is great optimism among those involved, however. The Arts Center website does not even mention the fire directly, it only states that the show must go on and donations to make the "Pheonix rise from the ashes" will be accepted. They lost a building, it says, but not heart. A local elementary school has given the Wee Actor's Guild a place to continue their performances of Charlotte's Web and surrounding theatre groups pulled together to find suitable props and costumes on short notice. No cause for the fire has been determined, and though investigators say that a determination will be difficult to make from what remains, arson is not suspected.

Donations can be made to the Manchester Arts Center in Manchester at Peoples Bank, First National Bank, and Coffee County Bank. And though the website does not say so, I'm sure that folks outside the Coffee County area who would like to make a donation to help rebuild the much-needed facility can mail it to The MMAC Rebuilding Fund, 909 Hillsboro Blvd., Manchester, TN 37355. Any amount will certainly be appreciated.