North Wales reports arts center schedule filling up with events

With fall fast approaching, the newest event venue in North Wales has a busy schedule ahead.

Council members heard an update last week on several events slated for the town’s Arts and Cultural Center in the near future.

“The Montgomery County (police) chiefs association had their breakfast meeting there, so that was really nice to see. There were literally 29 chiefs of police who came into the borough, and they all commented on how nice it was,” said borough Manager Christine Hart.

Located at 125 North Main Street, the borough-owned church dates back to the early 20th century, and the adjacent office building to the 1970s. Both were the subject of lengthy talks throughout the late 2010s as the former church congregation there arranged to sell the buildings to the town in 2016, then council held several years of discussion on what to do next before the church congregation held their final services in 2022. 

Two grants were awarded by the county in summer 2022, and a $2.7 million renovation contract awarded in summer 2023, and over the two-plus years since, council has continued talks on how to lease, rent and operate both buildings, and heard monthly updates on the renovation work, leading to a soft opening on May 15 when the Partnership for Transportation, formerly the Partnership TMA of Montgomery County, held the first event there, followed by a formal ribbon cutting in June.

Since then, the manager told council in recent meetings, the Partnership has continued to use their office space there, while the caterer that runs events in the building has had “three or four showings a month” for those interested in booking events. One symphonic group has expressed interest in performing there, and a piano instructor has scheduled a recital for early November, the manager said.         

“We also have a wedding, tentatively, in November, and we also have a memorial booking in October,” she said.

Staff are also working with a musical group that had performed in the church prior to the renovations to schedule a show, likely in early 2026, and are working with the North Wales Area Library to host library events there, according to the manager. Next steps needed from council in the upcoming few months will be to finalize and fill out a nonprofit that could oversee the center itself, and seek grants to help fund its activities and any future upgrades.

“A lot of people that want the banquet hall contact the caterer, and then the caterer contacts us and we just put it on the calendar,” she said.

“We need a nonprofit, as discussed, to take on that ownership to hold those performances. But we’ll still do our seasonal things there,” Hart said.

Community Day coming soon

Hart also gave an update on the town’s annual Community Day events, scheduled to be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 27.

“Pray for good weather: if it’s good, we’ll see 3,000 to 5,000 people,” Hart said.

The annual all-day festival will feature live music, food trucks, a beer garden, and over 100 vendors, according to the manager, along with a free kid zone from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Updates on the day’s festivities will be posted on the North Wales Community Day Facebook page, and a full list of sponsors is available in the council meeting materials paket.

“Our sponsors are so generous,” she said.

Landscaping update?

Hart also told council about plans to update the landscaping in the town’s Walnut Street Park, just north of the intersection of Main and Walnut Streets and across Walnut from the Tex Mex Connection restaurant.

“Jane Keyes is working with a landscaping company, and she is offering to redesign all of Walnut Square,” Hart said.

Located just steps away from the town’s busiest intersection, Walnut Street Park currently sports overgrown hedges surrounding a sidewalk leading from the street to a nearby parking lot, and starting in roughly 1990 included a wooden arch built by students at North Montco A.V.T.S. — now the North Montco Technical Career Center — until that arch was removed in 2021 due to concerns over deterioration and bees swarming the structure.

Keyes, the owner of Tex Mex, has regularly made donations to the town and its police department as thanks for their support of events like Tex Mex runs, and has offered a donation in a different form to help revive that park, the manager said.

“The redesign would not be the hardscape, just the landscaping. She’s looking to (plant) everything indigenous, and tame it back a little bit, from what it had been in the past,” she said.

Doing so would likely require a formal approval from council to accept the donation, and Keyes is currently working with a local landscaper to develop a maintenance plan that the town could take on, and/or volunteers could help with as seasons change, and the plants grow and go.

“Our Public Works department are not seasoned landscapers, and don’t necessarily know what’s a plant, what’s a weed, when’s the right time for it to come in, when should it be pruned,” Hart said. Councilwoman Wendy McClure asked if those native plantings could help create a bird habitat the town could use to seek a formal “Bird Town” designation, and Hart said that’s part of the discussion.

“If she has native (plantings) there, that really will be the ticket,” McClure said.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Sept. 23 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street; for more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com