Gilbert Theater uses Arts Council grants to support two projects their 32nd season

By Staff Report, posted Aug 7, 2026 on BizFayetteville.com

The Gilbert Theater has announced the support of their main stage and education programs with the help of two grants totaling $24,000 from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County.

“The Gilbert Theater, like all nonprofits, depends on grants and other outside funding to fulfill our mission,” said Artistic Director Matt Lamb in a press release. “We welcome the support offered by these grants, which allow us to continue providing educational programming at a price point that reaches the widest population, resource the theater to fulfill its promise of high-quality main stage shows for the community, and provide funding to offer opportunities to local artists.”

Graphic porvided by: The Gilbert Theater

The Gilbert Theater’s Mission Based grant from the Arts Council will help their agency for the entire season to include their five Main Stage shows for 2026-2027 —The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, It’s A Wonderful Life (A Radio Play), Crimes of the Heart, The Glass Menagerie and Next to Normal—as they provide entertaining and thought-provoking live theater for the community.

The grant will also provide support to our Education program, involving instructional activities for the students in their 2026 youth Summer Camp program as well as production costs for their performance of Fantastic Mr. Fox on July 25-26, allowing them to share the skills they have learned with family, friends, and the community. This grant will also support instructional activities and production costs in September 2026 – June 2027 for the students in the Gilbert GLEE and Gilbert Playhouse youth education programs and will enable Gilbert Adult Theater Education (G.A.T.E.) program to bring highly-qualified theater professionals to Fayetteville in Spring 2027 to conduct workshops open to local artists or beginners interested in acquiring or honing their theater skills.

Grants from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County increase opportunities for access to arts, cultural, and historical programming in Cumberland County. The grants are awarded to nonprofit agencies, institutions of higher education and municipal entities in Cumberland County that demonstrate financial and administrative stability.

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