Page 5 - BusinessWest March 17, 2025

Richard F. Burkhart, CPA and Salvatore J. Pizzanelli, CPA, JD, PFS
The talented team at Burkhart Pizzanelli
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Julie M. Quink, CPA and Deborah J. Penzias, CPA
The talented team at Burkhart Pizzanelli provides
provides expertise in a full range of accounting
and financial services. Feel free to call on us at Consulting 413.734.9040.Feel free to call on us at 413.734.9040.
expertise in a full range of accounting and financial services.
201 Park Avenue, Suite 2, West Springfield, MA
201 Park Avenue, Suite 2 • West SpringfieldR, eMtAir0e1m08e9nt Plans T: 413.734.9040 • F: 413.781.5609
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The renovated, three-screen Amherst Cinema was reopened in 2006.
Staff Photo
The original building dates back to 1879, when a livery was erected on the site of the former Amherst Academy. After a major downtown fire in 1926, the structure was sold, renovated, and oper- ated as a single-screen cinema until 1999, when it closed after years of neglect and deterioration.
That’s a lot of evolution, but what hasn’t changed — especially over the past two decades — is Amherst Cinema’s impact on the arts and cultural landscape of this region.
“We’re a catalyst for community. We are a place that feels very reflective of the greater community of moviegoers,” Eisenhauer said as she settled down in one of the empty theaters for an in-depth talk about the facility’s history, offerings, and future.
The program of offerings on any given day appeals to a wide demographic, she added, from kids to college students to older lov- ers of film history.
“We have our Exhibition on Screen, which is our art-history films. We also have National Theatre Live, which are filmed record- ings of performances from London’s West End. But then we have The Rocky Horror Picture Show. We have many, many filmmakers who come on stage through our Bellwether: New Voices in Film Series, as well as first-run and specialty films.”
Recently, as part of a James Earl Jones retrospective, Amherst Cinema began screening all three original Star Wars movies.
“When A New Hope was here, we had a sold-out house of Star BusinessWest
Soon after, a group of arts lovers decided to save the historic structure from the auction block, raising nearly $3 million to build the new, nonprofit Amherst Cinema, which reopened in 2006 as a state-of-the-art, three-screen cinema. In 2013, a
fourth screen was opened at the intimate Stu-
dio Theater, located steps away from the main
cinema building.
CELEBRATING 130 YEARS
Est. 1895
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“We have 5,500 members, and our mem-
bers and supporters were essential in terms of
getting us through the pandemic. If you look
around, all of these seats in our theaters are
named,” she continued, pointing out patrons’
names engraved on tiny plates on the front of
each seat. “People in the community have very
deep investments in this place that they see as a cinema, but really their cinema. And they want to see it survive and thrive.”
“When you think about what the greater community needs at this time, it’s an opportunity to come in, share the film experience, clap and laugh and applaud and cry and process and grieve.”
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