Common Wealth Award Chairman Candy Carden, GCV President Nina Mustard and Meg Laughon, President, Hillside Garden Club
The Garden Club of Virginia’s 2016 Common Wealth Award winner is The Academy Center of the Arts Tree Garden, proposed by Hillside Garden Club, Lynchburg. The monetary award was presented at the GCV’s Board of Governors Meeting in Virginia Beach.
The Tree Garden is a collaboration between Hillside Garden Club and The Academy Center of the Arts, and is an excellent example of a garden club working with a local organization. Conservation, beautification, horticulture, preservation and education are all touched upon in this plan.
Built in 1905, the historic theater at the Academy Center of the Arts is one of the few surviving turn-of-the-century theaters in Virginia. Saved from destruction, the theater was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969. Since then, the theater sat quiet while the adjacent Academy Center served as a performance and art class space. Now, theater is undergoing a transformation, and will once again welcome local, regional and national performances.
