CitySpace Awarded $25,000 Grant from John Victor Machuga Foundation

EASTHAMPTON — The John Victor Machuga Foundation Inc. has awarded $25,000 to CitySpace for the second-floor renovation of Old Town Hall.

Easthampton Old Town Hall’s second floor has served as a meeting and performance space in the past but is currently not accessible. Included in the restoration, renovations, and repairs will be an accessible entryway, elevator to all floors of the building, and flexible performing-arts and community space with green room, offices, concessions, restrooms, and storage. The funding will go toward a needed match for a $200,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council Cultural Facilities Fund awarded to CitySpace in June 2019.

Established in 1994, the John Victor Machuga Foundation provides support for education, research, the arts, and healthcare. Machuga, who acquired assets in his life without heirs to leave them to, directed that his executors establish a private foundation upon his passing.

“John Victor Machuga was a hardworking, self-made person — traits akin to the founders of Easthampton’s Old Town Hall,” said CitySpace President Burns Maxey. “The foundation’s funding is a gift to us all and will help to enable the upper hall of Old Town Hall to become a dynamic performance and community space for our city and region.”