The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts is working to repair damage caused by a water main break early Monday morning.
Executive Director Anna Marie Gewirtz told VPR that the organization’s historic MainStage was spared, but there was extensive damage to the center’s smaller event and performance space, FlynnSpace.
“The production equipment, our lighting equipment, some of our soft goods like our drapes and curtains and things like that – they were severely impacted,” Gewirtz said. She said the FlynnSpace’s floor will also need to be totally replaced.
Gewirtz said cleanup crews are working to assure that damage will not impact scheduled events: “We’ve had an amazing crew onsite working around the clock and they’ve made tremendous, tremendous progress since Monday, so we’re very hopeful.”
Gewirtz, who took over as the Flynn's executive director in July, said there’s been an outpouring of support from members, staff and board members.
“What it showed to me was how much people really, really care about the Flynn," Gewirtz said, "and how they value it as a community resource and a place that brings arts to everyone.”
She said the organization is still assessing the full extent of the damage and what it will cost to repair. Most of the repairs will be covered by insurance, she said, but not all of it.
In the meantime, the organization is going ahead with it’s Over the Edge for the Flynn fundraising event this Saturday at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Burlington.
Disclosure: The Flynn Center is a VPR underwriter.
