The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Kwalick hired to lead arts and cinema center
BANTAM — Robert Kwalick was recently hired as the full-time executive director of the Bantam Cinema & Arts Center Inc., its board announced in a statement.
The non-profit film and arts space is slated for a soft opening in late September, members said.
“The board is excited to welcome Robert as our inaugural full-time executive director,” said Kennedy Cogan, board president. “We are impressed with his enthusiasm for the role and his love and desire to support the reimagining of the Bantam Cinema and Arts Center, Inc. as an arts hub in Litchfield. We believe he will be a strong and devoted leader of this beloved community treasure.”
According to the board, Kwalick is a successful performing artist with extensive experience in arts and culture, program development and facilities and events management. “He has dedicated his life to finding ways to make arts offerings more accessible to both practitioners and audiences,” members said.
He has been both a teacher and a technical director at a range of institutions including the Thomaston Opera House and the Forman School, served on the board of directors of The Goshen Players and has also volunteered for Pilobolus, ASAP!, and the Susan B. Anthony Project.
Kwalick graduated with a bachelor of arts in communications from Monmouth College and has an M.F.A. in acting from Northern Illinois University/DeKalb.
“It is an honor to work with this board, whose passion for the arts will undoubtedly nourish the newly reimagined Bantam Cinema and Arts Center, Inc. so that it grows into an ongoing source of enrichment for an ever-widening circle of people who turn to it repeatedly as an exciting and dependable cultural venue,” Kwalick said. “I share with them their firm belief in the power of the arts as potent communitybuilding resources, enhancing the lives of people of all ages. While many people already anticipate our reopening, as we expand programming to make it clear that all are welcome at BCAC, we are very eager to embrace a diverse gathering of new friends, beginning with young people and that is inclusive and far-reaching.
“Now a nonprofit, inviting input and support from patrons, the cinema will maintain its important role in showcasing independent films, while also presenting family-friendly films and activities, and hosting performing and visual arts offerings,” he said. “This is a perfect time to provide people a place to come together again to share talents, ideas and mutual appreciation.”
The board members said the arts center and cinema will continue to screen “high-quality independent films, as it has traditionally done, as well as offer family and school opportunities to develop a passion for the arts in the younger generations. It will also seek to highlight films produced by Connecticut filmmakers which will include post movie discussions with filmmakers or actors.”
The mission of the Bantam Cinema & Arts Center, Inc. “is to preserve and operate the historic Bantam Cinema and enhance the cultural vitality of the Litchfield Hills through offering a diverse program of film, theater, music and visual arts that seeks to inspire, educate, and engage its audience,” according to the statement.
Bantam Center & Arts Center, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue
For more information, go to www.bantamcinema.org or contact Kennedy Cogan, president, Board of Directors, at kennedy.bantam@ gmail.com.