Artcraft Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Artcraft Theatre is a classic grand movie theater in downtown Franklin, Indiana
. It was built in 1922 in an Art Deco
style, and was used for vaudeville
and silent movies
. The theater was one of the first in the area to feature cool air when it installed a swamp cooler. It served as a full-time movie theater until 2000.
In 2006, Franklin Heritage, Inc. (FHI), a non-profit which bought the theatre, received a state historic preservation grant toward its restoration. Franklin Heritage works to preserve and restore historic assets in the city. They use the theatre to show "classic" movies on the weekends, which proceeds are used toward rehabilitation. The theatre is also becoming a community center for special events: a site for private and community parties, concerts, foreign films, and a B-movie
festival.
Franklin, Indiana
As of the census of 2000, there were 19,463 people, 6,824 households, and 4,872 families residing in the city. The population increased by more than 50% during the 1990s , with new residents attracted by jobs in the community, as well as some people commuting to Indianapolis for work. The...
. It was built in 1922 in an Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style, and was used for vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
and silent movies
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
. The theater was one of the first in the area to feature cool air when it installed a swamp cooler. It served as a full-time movie theater until 2000.
In 2006, Franklin Heritage, Inc. (FHI), a non-profit which bought the theatre, received a state historic preservation grant toward its restoration. Franklin Heritage works to preserve and restore historic assets in the city. They use the theatre to show "classic" movies on the weekends, which proceeds are used toward rehabilitation. The theatre is also becoming a community center for special events: a site for private and community parties, concerts, foreign films, and a B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
festival.