Elliott dedicates new arts center

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April 22, 2007

By CARRIE KIRSCHNER The Daily Independent Sun Apr 22, 2007, 10:08 AM EDT

SANDY HOOK — It was a day for Shakespeare.

So Superintendent Emeritus of Elliott County Schools Eugene S. Binion quoted him: “All the world’s a stage, And the men and women merely players,” he read, standing on stage of the newly opened Adkins-Caudill Performing Arts Center.

The center — named in honor of State Rep. Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, and the W. Paul & Lucille Caudill Little Foundation — was formally dedicated Saturday.

Binion, who was superintendent when $950,000 was granted from the foundation and matched with $2 million from the General Assembly through the efforts of Adkins, said he had always wanted to quote Shakespeare as an educator. But “it was hard in the old gym,” he said.

Since opening in January the 318-seat, 12,000-square-foot-theater has formally replaced the gym as the school and community gathering place.

Frank Olson, the center’s director, said it already has a busy spring schedule and plans for the summer are underway. The sale of 110 memory bricks for placement at the entry way is funding the programs, he said.

In addition to classes of students who have used the facility for assemblies, band practice, and poetry and literature readings, it has hosted a Lexington Children’s Theater Spring Break workshop, the regional Governor’s Cup competition and a countywide spelling bee. The Elliott County boys basketball team even utilized the facility’s 18-foot wide projection movie screen to watch tapes of their opponents prior to their first-ever trip to the state tournament.

The response “has been wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” Superintendent John Williams said.

But it was Proc Caudill, a board member of the foundation and nephew of Lucille Caudill Little, who perhaps summed up the emotion in the room best when he said, “It’s just amazing that we’re sitting in downtown Sandy Hook in this beautiful performing arts center.”

He called the building an example of Little’s dream to provide opportunities in the arts to areas of the state where she had deep roots.

That vision of furnishing opportunities to inspire generations to come is also shared by Adkins, who said he is humbled and honored to have his family’s name share a place with the Caudill’s on the building.

Repeatedly choked with emotion throughout his remarks, Adkins called the facility “a historic project for this county.”

Not only will it broaden the district’s curriculum, but it will enrich the entire community, he said. “If we want our community in eastern Kentucky to be all they can be, we have to provide opportunity and that is what this project is all about,” he said. “It’s a first class project for first class people.”

David Gillum, an Elliott County junior, said he will be one of the first to take advantage of the new opportunities the center furnishes. Gillum plans to take the first drama courses offered by the school next year and looks forward to having a place to showcase local talent, including his own.

A band member, Gillum has already played in the center.

“I love it. I think its really great its like a miniature Mountain Arts Center,” he said.

Gillum added, he never imagined he would get to play anywhere like it in Sandy Hook.

“We figured we’d be in that old gym forever,” he said.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reach at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.

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