The restoration of the Lompoc Theatre got a nice shot in the arm this week when the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation announced a $150,000 matching-grant commitment to the project, which will restore the city’s nearly 100-year-old venue.
With an aim to reopen the theater to bring movies, concerts, and other live performances back to the venue, Executive Director Mark Herrier and his 13-member board of directors have been working hard since 2012 to raise the $10 million needed to bring the project back to life. It has been dormant since 1991, but the nonprofit group behind the restoration project has a fundraising campaign going and a plan to reopen around the theater’s 100th birthday in 2027. The infusion of a dollar-for-dollar matchup from the Chumash should help considerably.
“This theater was the pride and joy of this town. I get emotional,” said Herrier in a statement about the donation. “People were so proud of it. Slowly but surely, it has come to represent a Lompoc that has fallen on hard times. The hard-working people who live here do much of the heavy lifting that benefits the entire county, but they don’t have a single entertainment center of their own. This empty theater has been a symbol of the decline — now it will become the engine for its renaissance.”