Jensen Center theater receives an artistic upgrade

Pankowski donation recognized with naming rights

Left to right: Dallas and Edith Pankowski flank the art designed by Edith and installed by Dallas on the doors to the newly named Dallas and Edith Pankowski Theater at the Jensen Community Center.

By Brent Frankenhoff

In mid-January, the final piece of five metallic art pieces was installed over the Jensen Community Center theater’s entrance. Now named the Dallas and Edith Pankowski Theater, the naming rights and funds for the art pieces were part of the couple’s generous $250,000 donation to the 3Stage Expansion Project, which has now fully entered Stage 3, the expansion of the backstage and storage areas of the theater.

Edith, the retired founder and teacher of UW-Stevens Point’s interior architecture program, designed the four metallic panels on the theater doors as well as the header above them while Dallas, a retired construction engineer, facilitated the laser cutting and finishing of each piece as well as helping to install them.

The pieces reflect the many artistic activities that are held in the theater from music presentations to dance recitals to plays and musicals. With the third stage of the expansion project giving the space more room for set pieces, props, and creating safer passage in the backstage areas, it is expected that more elaborate productions can be mounted in the future.

While work on the final stage is underway, the Project’s capital campaign is not yet finished. As reported in the January Spirit, a $50,000 matching donation challenge has been issued by Jerry Guyant with a deadline to meet it by March 30. When informed of the progress of donations to meet that challenge, he said, “I hope I get to give the full $50,000.”