Double Edge Theatre Purchases Historic Property on Conway Road in Ashfield

Thanks to generous grant from the The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund,Double Edge Theatre has purchased a historic property at 1216 Conway Road in Ashfield, MA. The two-family home was built in 1845, has 1.5 acres of open land, and the property runs adjacent to the South River. The property connects to the Double Edge Farm.

The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (CFF) is an initiative of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Since 2007, CFF has made 692 grants to 380 cultural organizations and communities to build, repair, and expand their facilities. It has supported projects across the state, in communities as diverse as Pittsfield and Provincetown.

Cultural institutions are major economic engines for the Commonwealth, and Double Edge contributes to the local community by hiring area contractors for building and Theatre Projects, employing Ashfield residents, and attracting thousands of visitors per year who eat, stay, and purchase goods and services in town. DE is honored to have been selected for this grant award, which recognizes the theatre's dedication to economic and artistic contributions to the Ashfield community.

The property is the third purchased by Double Edge since the theatre's move to Ashfield in 1994, the first being the Double Edge Farm on Conway Road, and the second a residence for visiting artists. (Additionally several members of the Double Edge ensemble have purchased private homes in Ashfield). "The building will be used to house design studios, including giant puppets and other large-scale outdoor performance designs, theatre storage, and for establishing costume and sewing shops which we hope to make accessible to our community. We are using the grant from CFF to purchase this house rather than build a storage facility on The Farm property, which would cramp our wonderful landscape unnecessarily. We are very excited this property became available as it is a huge value to have it right next door to our major site." says Stacy Klein, Double Edge's Founder and Co-Artistic Director. "We hope to make this beautiful house updated and restore it according to its original design."

About Double Edge Theatre

Double Edge Theatre was founded by Stacy Klein in 1982 as an artist-owned ensemble theatre, in which each member would be responsible for the art making as well as the business and board leadership. In 1994 the ensemble moved from Boston to a 100-acre Farm in the Ashfield Massachusetts Hilltowns to further the sustainability of the theatre and its international artist collaborations.

Double Edge Theatre's mission is to create a 'living culture' by developing the highest quality of original theatre performance, based on the long-term imaginative work of its ensemble of artists and their rich interaction with the communities in which the work takes place-and by cultivating a permanent center of performance, training, research, and cultural exchange at The Farm in Ashfield, Massachusetts.

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