Atlanta’s Fox Theatre Invests $500K In 8 Historic Venues In Georgia

Running any venue is demanding. But operating an historic theater presents additional challenges with managers tasked with preserving the building’s legacy while balancing contemporary production needs and audience expectations.

Atlanta’s Fox Theatre manages to do both. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization, the Fox Theatre is a fiercely protected landmark and a nationally acclaimed theater under a lavish dome.

The 4,665-seat opulent jewel box was named 2025 Theater of the Year by the International Entertainment Buyers Association (IEBA). The venue was No. 1 on Pollstar’s list of top venues in the 2,501-5,000 category in the December issue, with 21 shows, a gross of $5,309,687 and 67,795 tickets sold from Sept. 23 to Oct. 20, according to Pollstar data.

“We’re kind of a hybrid,” offers Allan Vella, President and CEO of the Fox Theatre. “We’re not a traditional performing arts center where we host the symphony or the ballet or the opera. To the contrary, we’re a popular entertainment venue. We have the history of being, a venue that Elvis Presley played and the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd recorded their triple or quadruple Platinum album, One More From the Road. But we’re also a venue that sets all the records for touring Broadway.”

The Fox Theatre was originally commissioned by the Shriners and was leased to movie mogul William Fox, who converted it into a movie palace. It opened in 1929 on Christmas Day with a showing of the Disney short Steamboat Willie. It was rescued from demolition in the ‘70s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized as a National Historic Landmark.

Today, the Fox Theatre is lauded for its lavish design, high volume of performances and community impact.

Fox Gives is the philanthropic arm of Fox Theatre and a major contributor to the preservation of theaters and cultural landmarks across Georgia. In November, Fox Gives announced $500,000 in single-year grants for eight venues.

“What we do is we take some of our excess revenue and we give back to these theaters, because, you know, a dark theater doesn’t do any community any good,” adds Vella.

The program started as a casual exchange of information between venue operators managing aging facilities.

“For years, we informally helped other theaters because we had restored ourselves back in the ‘70s,” explains Vella. “And as a nonprofit, a lot of other nonprofits would approach us asking, ‘How do you restore plaster?’ Or wanting to know how you find the original paint color of a wall, or who do you find to restore this furniture? …So, we decided to formalize what we were already doing, and we created first what we called Fox Theater Institute but recently changed its name to Fox Gives as part of our community partnership department.”

The funding helps the facilities adapt to meet community needs, ensuring they remain vibrant gathering places that fuel creativity and local economies.

Since it started in 2008, the program has awarded more than $4.7 million to historic venues in the Southeast. The total includes more than $4.2 million in single-year grants distributed to 64 venues throughout the region, as well as a $500,000 multi-year grant presented in 2024 to the Hart County Community Theatre. The funding supports a variety of needs from emergency repairs and historic structure studies to infrastructure upgrades, technical assistance and long-term preservation planning.

“Historic theaters are more than just buildings – they are physical storytellers, cornerstones and catalysts for community revitalization,” says Vella. “As the Fox approaches its 100th anniversary, our focus goes beyond preserving our own building. As we look to the next hundred years, we’re committed to nurturing the vitality, creativity and sense of place that historic venues bring to the communities they anchor.”

The recent Fox Gives Preservation & Facilities Grant projects represent a cross-section of Georgia’s cultural landscape – from $58,500 to refurbish the veranda at Springer Opera House, a National Historic Landmark in Columbus, to awarding $45,000 to restore original windows at the Colored Memorial Building Auditorium, a coastal memorial auditorium honoring African American World War I veterans in Brunswick.  

Other Georgia recipients include $62,500 for DeSoto Theatre in Rome, to help construct a new proscenium; $57,000 for the Morton Theatre in Athens – one of the few remaining African American-built theaters in the state – for new auditorium stage stairs and improvements to the pit; and $47,000 for the Ritz Theater & Cultural Center in Albany to help fund the rehabilitation and eventual reopening of the iconic auditorium located in the Harlem Renaissance Project district.

The Ritz Theatre in Toccoa will receives $65,000 to support the purchase of new seating for the auditorium; $65,000 will go to the Thomasville Center for the Arts Auditorium, a first-time recipient undertaking essential work to replace outdated auditorium lighting; and $100,000 will be given to the Sautee Nacoochee Historic Gymnasium in Sautee Nacoochee to support the completion of restoration work on the 1930’s-era gymnasium.

“We are honored to be among this year’s Fox Gives recipients,” said Mel Whitehead, Executive Director of Sautee Nacoochee Center. SNC “is excited to continue the renovation of our historic 1938 gymnasium. This gym stands as a symbol of community connection and creativity. With The Fox Theatre’s support, we can continue restoring it as a vibrant and inclusive venue for future generations.”

The financial resources for the grants are generated by the Fox Theatre, which hosts more than 150 performances a year with 500,000 visitors annually. The venue, which has two ballrooms, also hosts more than 100 private events each year.

“We’re not a venue that seeks donations or contributions,” says Vella. “Unlike most performing arts centers, our Board has always demanded that we pay our own way and that we earn our own keep and drive enough revenue to reinvest in this theater and other programs around the country.”

Last year Fox Gives launched All-Access Pass, a new initiative which introduces high-school students to a variety of live industry career paths.

“We are introducing young high school students – predominantly in drama departments – to all the occupations that are available in facility management and arts and entertainment,” explains Vella. “So, if it’s sewing costumes, or if it’s running a box office, or being the marketing director of a theater, we’re exposing them to all of those occupations and we’re giving away scholarships for college.”

Now it its second year, the program is working with four high schools from across the state. Students attend a show at the Fox and during their visit shadow the professional staff in addition to visiting theaters in their communities that are supported by Fox Gives.   

“I always say that we’re very entrepreneurial like a for-profit business, but we have the heart of a nonprofit,” says Vella. “So, we walk that line boldly where we like to do for others. I don’t know of any other venue in the country that gives away almost a million dollars a year to other venues to help them along and try to teach them the lessons of operating an efficient facility that is self-sustaining.”