The future.
That’s what the Mass Cultural Council s announcement earlier this month that a total of $842,000 in Cultural Facilities Fund grants will go to nine area Cape Cod and Islands organizations means to the groups struggling to figure out what’s next after the shutdowns and losses of the pandemic.
“I’ve said all along that if we got this grant, we can just keep going, said Janine Perry, producing artistic director at Cape Rep Theatre in Brewster, where work is due to wrap up next month on the restoration of the exterior of the century-old Crosby Barn.
That building will become the company’s second indoor performance space, but the inside of the barn is now empty. With the $190,000 facilities grant which must be matched through fundraising, so it becomes almost $400,000 Cape Rep officials can take a big step toward finishing the overall $2.3 million project. The restoration was also recently supported by $400,000 in town Community Development funds.
70 percent of Islandâs 75-plus to be vaccinated by end of week
O.B. library closes after employee tests positive for COVID-19.
Updated 5:15 pm
Marthaâs Vineyard Hospital expects to vaccinate 70 percent of the Islandâs 75-and-older population by the end of this week.
The hospitalâs vaccine clinics have been running smoothly, according to hospital president and chief executive officer Denise Schepici. She stressed that individuals do not need to be hospital patients to receive a vaccine. She said the challenge all providers are facing is vaccine supply. Vaccine clinics began Monday, and will continue through Saturday this week.
The Martha s Vineyard Times
Businesses allowed to increase capacities
Theaters, retail shops, restaurants allowed up to 40 percent capacity.
Updated 5 pm
Following several weeks of reduced hospitalizations, fewer new cases of COVID-19, and lower positivity rates, restaurants, museums, and gyms are allowed to have up to 40 percent capacity.
In addition to restaurants, retail, and gyms, other businesses allowed to go to 40 percent capacity include driving schools and libraries. Movie theaters will also be allowed 40 percent capacity, but are limited to 50 people per theater. Capacity for offices, houses of worship, hair salons will also rise from 25 percent to 40 percent. The increased capacity went into effect Monday at 5 am.
Inside The Capawock Theatre. (Courtesy Martha s Vineyard Film Society)
Despite significant community investment to restore and revive two historic Martha’s Vineyard movie theaters five years ago, the pandemic may be the last straw. Mark Snider, founding director of the Martha’s Vineyard Theater Foundation, recently announced that the nonprofit will not renew its lease for the Capawock Theatre in Vineyard Haven and the Strand Theatre in Oak Bluffs.
“I couldn’t ask people to raise money for something shuttered,” says Snider. Typically only open in the warmer tourist months, the theaters bypassed operating in 2020 altogether because of the pandemic. But rent was still due. “It’s sad,” says Snider of the places he has loved since childhood.