PORT ANGELES — As they continue up the path toward reviving the shutdown Lincoln Theater as a nonprofit performing arts center, Scott Nagel and Karen Powell are forming an advisory council and preparing to file articles of nonprofit incorporation with the state.
Both tasks are steps toward recruiting a board of directors and obtaining federal nonprofit status, Powell explained Wednesday night in a public meeting on the Lincoln’s future.
Held in The Landing mall’s conference room, the forum was the second of three discussions on how to recruit an effective governing board.
Last winter, Nagel and Powell, married business partners, put an offer of $235,000 on the old movie house at First and Lincoln streets that was closed in February 2014.
Their plan: raise that sum through donations and grants, then convert the Lincoln into a 480-seat venue for concerts, plays, lectures, corporate events and church programs.
Nagel said this week that $185,000 in pledges has come in. He continues to seek them via the “Light Up the Lincoln” page on Facebook and through www.RevitalizePortAngeles.org, which has a Lincoln Theater page under its “Revitalize PA Projects” heading.
He also invites anyone who’s curious about a reborn Lincoln — contributing toward the purchase, serving on its advisory council or applying for the board of directors — to phone him at 360-808-3940.
He envisions an advisory council of about 20 people from the arts and business sectors.
Also the producer of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival on the Port Angeles waterfront every October, Nagel hopes to be the executive director of the nonprofit Lincoln Theater.
Powell, a longtime consultant for nonprofit organizations, is working with Nagel to bring together the board. Once it’s in place, they will apply for federal nonprofit status.
Among the eight attendees at this week’s meeting were MarySue French, owner of the Cabled Fiber Studio in downtown Port Angeles and a member of the NorthWest Women’s Chorale; theater director and actor Richard Stephens; and Jim Moran, the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce’s board president.
Moran recently visited downtown Astoria, Ore., where he toured the Liberty Theater, a 600-seat performing arts center and the site of a multimillion-dollar restoration.
The Liberty, a nonprofit organization since 1998, ought to serve as a model for Port Angeles, Moran said.
“Can the Lincoln Theater succeed here? It not only can,” he said, “it should.”
“There are no closed doors” when it comes to building the board, Powell added.
To that end, Powell and Nagel will give another public presentation, titled “Creating Profiles for Great Board Members,” on Aug. 26.
In that session at 6 p.m. in the upstairs conference room at The Landing mall, 115 E. Railroad Ave., the pair will discuss the qualities of a good board member — and who in the community has those traits.
Stephens, for his part, said he’d like to see 10 or 11 board members.
“The theater needs a certain amount of diversity,” he said, “to make a strong, healthy board.”
Powell agreed, saying she hopes for “workers, wealth and wisdom” — aka community activists, business people and artists of all types.
“We want to go beyond the bounds of the usual group who are doing things,” Nagel added.
“Hopefully some people will come out whom we’ve never heard of before.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
