PLT Pensacola Cultural Center renovation nears completion

• The renovation was top to bottom including the Atrium, Theater, Black Box and Gallery
• The Top of the Center has been converted to a rooftop performance venue with an upscale cocktail bar
• The Center is home to 20 non-profit organizations

After over three years of anticipation, Pensacola Little Theater’s renovations of the Clark Family Cultural Center are reaching their grand finale. The Center CEO Sid Williams-Heath is planning to pull back the curtain and unveil the space to the public this summer.

While the scale of the project has grown since it was first introduced in 2021, rising up an estimated $7 million price tag once complete, Williams-Heath is confident the finished product will be worth it.

“We launched this in November of 2021. Granted, the scope was not as big then, but it is certainly monumental and of magnitude now. After all that long time coming, we are so excited to showcase it and celebrate it with the community, starting this summer,” Williams-Heath said. “We will do a ribbon cutting of the entire Clark Family Cultural Center in tandem with our 89th anniversary starting in July.”

Pensacola Little Theater purchased the old county jail in 1988 and before its most recent massive renovation, spent almost 10 years restoring the building to become the Pensacola Cultural Center, which officially opened in 1992. The Cultural Center is now home to over 20 non-profit organizations ranging from PLT, to the Children’s Chorus to the African American Heritage Society.

Williams-Heath, also PLT executive director, took on the additional role as the first CEO of The Clark Family Cultural Center in 2023.

The transformation process has been a meaningful one for Williams-Heath, as he has worked to curate a space that physically supports everything The Center stands for. A place filled with creative inspiration, community, empowerment and belonging. Williams-Heath wants guests to feel a sense of discovery as they wander through.

“If there’s one thing that I want people to know, it’s that every part of the redesign is in tandem with the mission of connecting community with live performance,” Williams-Heath said. “Theater exists to tell stories, stories of people who look and love like you, and even better, oftentimes people who don’t.

“I’m blown away because it’s way more than I expected,” he continued. “It’s lovely when things that you do − blood, sweat and tears you put into it − are what you needed them to be. This is way more. Again, the building has become its own character. People who have lived here for decades, who’ve gone past this building and not known what it was are so intrigued and enticed to come in here.”

The project, which was brainstormed during pandemic, was intended to bring the building into a new chapter while also giving it a timeless look and feel. The work is also meant to provide enhancements for the many different entities that call the century-old building home.

Rubble to rooftop bar: Pensacola Cultural Center is renovating & reinventing itself – again

“So, we just wanted to make sure that we accentuated the art and not just the beautification of the building. So, in that we started with the interior, that was the original $3 million. We actually ended up doing the entire interior for about $3.3 million, so we were kind of stuck close to that,” he said.

He also wanted to ensure that the performance areas did justice to the level of talent that The Center supports.

“My favorite question is after a show, ’Hey, where’s that touring company from? Hey, where did those artists come from?’ And my stock answer always is, ‘That’s your neighbor, that’s your teacher, that’s your therapist. Honestly, that’s your ex-girlfriend. … You know these people, but the caliber of the performances is so high,’” he said. “After decades of paying off an original renovation from the ’80s, it was time to make the building match the caliber of the talent.”

While it was a large project to tackle, Williams-Heath had clear priorities on completing the interior renovations first, then branching off to other projects from there, such as The Top, a rooftop performance venue with a top-notch bar that has had the community buzzing.

“The mission was to redo, redesign, rethink, reimagine the interior spaces, because that’s what we had, that’s what we utilized, that’s what the volunteers needed. And we did that first,” he said. “We did not spend a dime of publicly donated dollars on anything other than interior until the interior was at a space that met that mission.”

Until the public gets to see the space this summer, here’s a taste of what to expect:

The Atrium

The Atrium is the first space that invites guests in, including a renovated bar where guests will be able to sip on a coffee or a cocktail in a stylish and creatively inspiring environment.

Williams-Heath compares it to the green room of a theater where performers congregate ahead of a show.

“No theatrical space, no live performance space, would be equipped without a green room, because historically in the theater world, every theater or public performance space has a green room that the performers or the talent or the visiting artists can always have a space before the show to refresh, sit, have a beverage,” he said.

“It’s meant to accommodate inspiration, if you will,” Williams-Heath said. “I mentioned earlier the art of discovery, and that is in the curiosity tables that are in front of you, that’s in the hidden nooks, that’s in the wandering eye going up the stairs.”

The Theater

A glimpse into the newly updated theater shows that the cloth seats have been exchanged for a larger, more luxurious light tan leather.

“The bread and butter, the mission, of course, is the live performance space itself. So, we renovated the theater space,” Williams-Heath said.

“(We) wanted it to be beautiful and timeless, so we revisited all of the seating. … The largest seat in the old theatre seats is now the smallest seat in the new renovation. Even with that growth, we only lost 13 seats….They have a longer lasting lifespan, of course. From an aesthetic standpoint, they just really gave the richness.”

The Black Box

Williams-Heath also wanted to sure that they had an up-to-date multi-purpose room that can accommodate some of The Center’s smaller events, such as children’s performances or camps, along with edgier, smaller-scale performances.

It’s nicknamed a black box, or simple, square performance space.

“We can fit 458 people in the main theater. We, depending on the layout, can fit about 120-130 in this space,” he said. “We wanted it to be a true black box, so we renovated that space, removed the drop ceiling, got new acoustics, floor to ceiling curtains, new carpeting, new lighting, all to accentuate the theater … but you also would have your wedding in there. You also would have EntreCon, Civicon, Pensacon, if it has a con in the name, we’ve had it in here.”

The Gallery

The Center will now also have a dedicated fine art gallery that can coincide with the theater’s performances, enhancing the patron’s experience.

While a gallery was always The Center’s intention, the space was often reprioritized to create more space for other departments. Now with the space they need, it can serve its true purpose.

“We’ve completely gutted and renovated that room, including a fine art gallery hanging system, because we will now have fine art exhibits … starting in late summer, early fall, it will open as a fine art gallery,” he said. “We will have not only traveling fine art exhibits there, but then we will also have three transitional exhibits that accentuate the performance art that we make.”

Some of these transitional exhibits could include over-the-top costumes used in a production of “My Fair Lady,’ or a red lip art display to pair with a production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“It’s just another way to accentuate but also connect the spaces,” Williams-Heath said.

The Top of The Center

After the interior renovations were complete, Williams-Heath decided it was time to continue raising funds for the top of the building, which has been converted into a rooftop performance venue with an upscale cocktail bar. The Top of The Center is a multifaceted, dynamic social venue designed for both public use and private enjoyment.

The Top, equipped with a focal performance stage, lounge, bar, catering kitchen, bespoke dining nook, and glass lantern skybox, features sweeping views of Pensacola Bay and downtown. The dynamic, creative hub will be utilized for public and private performances, live entertainment, weddings and events, a social series of experiences unique to The Center.

It was also added to provide an open-air opportunity for patrons to enjoy theater without being cramped inside, a setting many patrons still fear post-pandemic, Williams-Heath said.

“We have to remember that this (renovation idea) happened during COVID, and one of the biggest take homes of COVID, not only for us, but in national survey, is that 41% of all of your patrons, universally, would never return to your space post-COVID because they didn’t feel comfortable being in an enclosed space,” he said. “So not only did we want to enhance and add a space, but we also wanted to act with that in mind of sometimes the outdoor spaces are where people feel more comfortable.”

Now with an additional performance space, artists will have more opportunities to express themselves, he said.

“As much art as we feature in a building – keep in mind this building has theater, ballet, Film Festival, literary Federation … we have fine art throughout, we are very representative – but we still have a Rubik’s cube of a calendar that can only accommodate so much,” Williams-Heath added. “A lot does get left behind. So, this space is meant to offer an opportunity for artists beyond what we offer right now.”

Renovations help with sustainable revenue

Williams-Heath knows that grants can come and go, and funding can be stripped away with the sign of a pen. However, the additional spaces that can be used and rented by the public can help offer a sustainable source of revenue for The Center.

“We’ve decided to take on a $7 million venture to make sure that we could create a sustainable revenue source that in the event of pandemic, natural disaster, political views, recession, change of interest, that while we still 100% meet those things we can create something that can sustain itself,” Williams-Heath said. “Meaning that our artists, our community, can always have access to creative expression and the benefits of taking in creative expression.”

Donors will receive first experience

Since donors stepped up in big ways to help make The Center’s renovation a reality, Williams-Heath said it will be important to honor them with an exclusive look of the facility in its full glory this spring.

The string of generosity started with a  $1 million donation from Dave and Cynthia Clark, who The Center was named in honor of.

“The arts, to a lot of people, are supplemental. It was an uphill battle to get $3 million. The fact that of a $7 million-plus-goal that over $6 million currently is all completely privately or grant funded is exceptional,” he said.

The donors are standing behind The Center’s future of many more years of serving the Pensacola community.

“People who are willing, who have capacity, who have interest, who are kind enough to give you money, actually really want to know that you have the capacity to spend it and that you also have the capacity to sustain and amplify their gift, and so that’s been the whole case of the community. We just want to make sure that we’re part of that narrative.”

”Resilience has been the number one word of this entire project”

Aside from the monetary donations, Williams-Heath acknowledges that multi-year project would not have been possible without the flexibility and commitment of his staff and army of volunteers.

“I’m not only bearing the weight of my blood, sweat and tears − and I’m not going to discount, I will take pride in the fact that I have blood sweat and teared — but I also have an entire staff who have hung with me through this journey,” Williams-Heath said. “We have offices that have been renovated. We have had performances that have had to be canceled. We’ve had performances that had to be moved into a smaller space. … Resilience has been the number one word of this entire project, and people have been supportive and they’ve stuck with it, and so I’m grateful for that.”

For more updates and information, visit The Center’s website at findyourcenterpensacola.com.