01/04/2023
UPDATE!
For anyone still in doubt – yes – the announcement made Saturday that the Fitton Center planned to convert the Carruthers Signature Ballroom into a skating rink was an April Fool’s Day prank. More info here:
https://www.fittoncenter.org/post/april-fools
BREAKING NEWS!
Big changes are afoot at the Fitton Center for Creative Arts.
Or should we say big changes are rolling in?
The Fitton Center contracted with the Plimpton Group out of Martha’s Vineyard to redesign the Carruthers Signature Ballroom and turn it into Butler County’s premier skating center – Fitton Skate-o-Rama.
“We’ve been looking for ways to increase our rentals and get people in the door,” said executive director Ian MacKenzie-Thurley. “We’re an art center, but we realized there is a big market for sports in our area. Our neighbors at Spooky Nook have a lot of that covered, but they don’t have a chandelier in their gym.”
Nor do they have the kind of 360-degree views of Hamilton the former ballroom will offer skaters.
“It’s an exciting proposition,” MacKenzie-Thurley said. “Most of that dark wood paneling will come down off the walls to be incorporated into the design of the skating surface on the floor. We’ll replace those paneled walls with floor-to-ceiling windows and have a true panorama.”
In addition to the existing chandelier and traditional disco balls, Fitton Skate-o-Rama will feature state-of-the-art Dolby digital sound, LED lighting and 8K-resolution ultra-high-definition projection capabilities.
“We’re still an art center after all,” MacKenzie-Thurley said. “We will have a variety of curated image packages to project onto the Skate-o-Rama skating surface. Dutch Masters. Impressionists. Italian Renaissance. Mid-century American Realists. We decided against the Escher package for obvious reasons, but I think the Dali projections could bring a whole new meaning to free skating.”
Read the whole story right here:
https://www.fittoncenter.org/post/wheeling-into-the-future
