Summary
Organization name
Backstage Rialto
Tax id (EIN)
46-5405366
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Address
228 E 4th StLoveland, CO 80537
Larimer County, CO, US
As a city-owned entity, the Rialto is restricted by set budgets, and its "profits" are rolled into the city's general fund. To keep up with technical advances and to develop a wider variety of programming, Backstage Rialto must raise money that can be kept and used directly for the Rialto Theater.
It was easy to take the Rialto Theater for granted back in 1966 when I first came to Loveland. It sat right there in the heart of downtown where we did all our shopping, and where we enjoyed a constant stream of first-run movies. It had been there for decades, a cultural touchstone. But just a little more than ten years after my family arrived, national retail chains, big box stores, and multi-screen theaters had pushed traffic away from downtown, and the lights went out on 4th Street.
Another ten years and the visionary leadership of Felicia Harmon and the Downtown Development Authority had rallied tireless volunteers, donations, and grants and brought the Rialto back from its sad state of abandonment and disrepair. Since the Rialto's rebirth in 1997, the City of Loveland has funded basic infrastructure and a bare-bones management staff, but for the Rialto to truly shine, the "private" part of this exceptional public-private project has needed to grow.
That's where Backstage Rialto comes in. Since being founded as a 501(c)3 xx years ago, Backstage Rialto has upgraded projection and audio equipment, underwritten exceptional programming (think Vienna Boys Choir, xxx), launched such festive events as The Return of the Blob (an inside joke if you've lived here a while) (Heather, can you add some other detail here?). It has helped the Rialto draw an enthusiastic regional audience as well as giving Lovelanders exciting new reasons to come downtown. Being part of this ongoing community effort to support performance art and cinema especially tailored for our town-what a privilege.
Linda Ligon, Partner, Long Thread Media
Backstage Rialto's Mission is to enhance and strengthen the Rialto Theater Center by providing financial support for expanded programming and physical facility improvements. We are a sounding board for staff and promote the importance of live performance. We strive to build community with shared cultural and historical experiences. We work to raise awareness of the ongoing importance of the Rialto Theater and its historical importance to the larger Northern Colorado community. We accomplish this mission through fundraising, volunteering and community ambassadorship efforts.
Backstage Rialto has its roots in two previous non-profit organizations, Friends of the Rialto and the Rialto Theater Guild. From its beginnings as a silent movie house in 1920, the Rialto has been a center for community involvement and entertainment. It was a privately owned enterprise until the late 1970s when it could no longer compete with the multi-plex movie theater trend and closed its doors. There was a failed attempt to repurpose it as a mini-mall in the early 1980s. By the late 1980s, economic studies of Loveland's downtown identified the restoration of the theater as the first and most important step towards revitalization. Friends of the Rialto was formed in 1992. The organization rallied an army of volunteers who worked tirelessly for years to remove the "improvements" of the mini-mall and prepare the vintage jewel box theater for renovation. Once the transformation was complete and the building was under the city's care, Friends of the Rialto disbanded. In 2001, the Rialto Theater Guild was formed to ensure the success of the theater as a valuable community asset. when it disbanded in 2014, Backstage Rialto as we now know it was formed. The organization has provided the theater with new sound equipment, live video streaming equipment, and a state-of-the-art video wall. These upgrades create and maintain a state-of-the-art performance venue for visiting world-class touring acts, and the theater can offer these same amenities to its community rental partners at an affordable rate. Backstage Rialto has also co-produced several concerts and hosts at least two fundraising events a year.
Organization name
Backstage Rialto
Tax id (EIN)
46-5405366
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Address
228 E 4th StLarimer County, CO, US