Brooklyn Art Groups To Spend Millions on Theater Expansion

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two major Brooklyn cultural organizations are planning to spend millions of dollars to expand a historic theater.

The $17.3 million renovation of the Strand Theatre on Fulton Street will create about 20,000-square feet of space for the organizations, BRIC Arts Media Bklyn and UrbanGlass.

Officials with the two organizations -- a visual and performing arts group and a glassmaking studio -- say that construction is expected to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2010.

The theater was constructed in 1918 for vaudeville acts in what is now known as the Brooklyn Academy of Music Cultural District. It later became a movie palace and bowling alley.

Photo from Cinema Treasures