Julie R. Garnsey, executive director of the Thousand Islands Performing Arts Fund, stands for a photo at the Clayton Opera House on Thursday in Clayton. Kara Dry/Watertown Daily Times Kara Dry
Live entertainment venues that went dark last spring with COVID-related lockdowns and lockouts saw some signs of hope in late December with the passage of the coronavirus relief package signed into federal law.
The $900 billion in relief includes the Save Our Stages provision, providing $15 billion to independent venues such as live music stages, movie theaters and museums shuttered by the pandemic.
In June, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced the Save Our Stages Act to provide Small Business Administration grants for independent venue operators affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The grants could provide six months of financial support to keep venues afloat, pay employees, and, the senators say, âpreserve a crit