Patricia Walker White: Passionately Panida

SANDPOINT - By the time the Panida Theater celebrated its 50th anniversary in the late-1970s, things were winding down fast for the downtown landmark.

Within a few years, the classic movie house that served as the town's gathering place since it was built in 1927 had been shuttered and was under the shadow of the wrecking ball.

It has been 30 years since Sandpoint residents mounted a grassroots effort that raised the initial $200,000 to buy the building. Since then, a steady influx of grants and donations has been channeled into restoring, upgrading and operating the historic theater.

Fast-forward to 2013 - a time when the Panida was physically fit, but faced with the impending retirement of 26-year veteran executive director Karen Bowers and a board of directors that stymied progress by pulling in multiple directions at once. Bowers' immediate successor never gained traction in the job, lasting less than a year and leaving damaged community relations in his wake.

Enter new executive director Patricia Walker White, who picked up the dropped baton in the fall of 2014 and launched into a full sprint to put the 88-year-old gem back on a fiscally sound and sustainable track.

Under her leadership, the theater has reinvigorated its film series, reached out to bring supporters back into the fold and, this month, rolled out a membership drive to keep the grand dame of downtown Sandpoint alive and well.

What was the career path that brought you to the Panida Theater?

For nine years, I was the arts coordinator for the city of Nampa. The city had a new mayor and a new focus on the arts, so I was recommended to the position by my mentor, Sylvia Hunt of Caldwell Fine Arts - she's the grand dame of arts education and has been the executive director there for 53 years.

She saw the opening for the Panida and sent the board a recommendation. I was contacted and asked to apply and the rest is history. I had been as far north as Hayden Lake, but never been to Sandpoint before. People told me when I came up here, 'Once you cross the Long Bridge, you'll never go back.'

Sounds like the Hotel California.

(Laughs) Well, only in the best way. When I came out of the interview, my daughter who came up with me and I were so impressed, because there was this huge lane of people biking. And they were all ages, from families with their children to senior citizens, all out there on bikes together. I thought, 'This is the kind of community I love.'

What was your first impression of the Panida?

I treasure when people have recognized how important a building like this is to the history and to the continuity of a community. It was easy to recognize that the Panida was one of the truest gems here - every time you said, 'The Panida,' everybody knew what you were talking about. The fact that the citizens of Sandpoint kept the Panida alive spoke volumes to me.

Is the job of preservation ever really over with a cultural landmark like this?

No. Any business sense will tell you that the theater can't stay afloat being open primarily Fridays and Saturdays. We are happy to rent the rest of the days of the week, but everything happens on the weekends. If a hardware store was open two days a week, they wouldn't stay in business very long. It takes the community's donations to keep this building alive and vibrant.

One thing that jumps out when you look at the schedule of events is how many local organizations are using the Panida these days. Is that something you spearheaded?

Absolutely. One of the components I understood has been missing in the last year or so was the lack of community collaboration, so I really tried to reach out to groups and make sure their events were successful and see what the Panida can do about that.

So, what can the Panida do? Is it about pricing, or is there more to it?

Sometimes it's a gamble on the presenter's side - how many seats they're going to have. So we're working on things like ticket splits and ideas like that. But we always have to keep in mind that the Panida is a nonprofit and we don't survive on that small rate we get. We survive on other things. Before I arrived, they had added the beer and wine bar so we could include that with events, merely so that we could keep having that nonprofit rate for people and keep adding things for the community.

Around these parts, when you say Panida Theater, you might as well be saying Karen Bowers, based on the number of years she spent here as executive director and how she personified this place. Film was her bailiwick and she built a big reputation on her knowledge there. Was that a hard act to follow?

She left huge shoes to fill and I try very hard to honor what she started. I know I can't be Karen Bowers - I bring different skills to the table. Bringing new ideas and still trying to honor the old ideas is kind of a balancing act at times. I am lucky that Karen has been happy to mentor me. She meets with me, she's involved in film selection and she stays a part of things, which makes a big difference.

A big part of what we're doing is bringing the films back. We had to re-establish relationships with some distributors that had been lost in her absence, so that has kind of been our focus.

There's a huge list of things that already had been accomplished to initially save and then restore the theater over the past 30-plus years. What remains to be done?

This summer, the goal is to take down the original ceiling and replace it. What we'd really like to do while we have it down is to install a sprinkler system to protect the community's investment.

We'd love to have a state-of-the-art soundboard and lights and some general updating of the stage, but the ceiling is the big one. We're never going to run out of projects, because this is an older building. But, when you look at what we've spent versus what it would take to construct some of the newer, state-of-the-art facilities, we've done very well with the community's money.

A few years ago, the Panida Little Theater was a big deal, but one that has since been underutilized. Any plans there?

Definitely underutilized. That is one of the biggest areas I'm hoping to expand, with reduced rates and summer rates so people can afford to use it. I would love to see things like musical groups, dinner theater, readers theater and improv happen in there.

It's a wonderful black box theater and there are not many of those kinds of opportunities around Sandpoint. The Panida Little Theater is a spot that has not been used to its full potential and it could be a lot of fun.

Legend has it that there is at least one ghost wandering around the theater. Any personal experiences on that front?

I have been told that and I was recently approached by some people who said they wanted to come in and test that - the Ghostbusters testing theory. For me, the ghosts in the Panida are more like the rich history. I think there are ghosts aplenty and stories to be told up there in that balcony, for instance. I'm sure there were more than one or two romances born up there.

What does a historic theater offer, besides being a venue, to the place it calls home?

I think it's crucial that it's recognized as part of the economic stability of Sandpoint. If this was a dark, boarded-up building, it would send an entirely different signal to everybody passing through and to the downtown merchants as a whole. It's a crucial piece of our economy, not just because it provides the arts, but because it's open and it's vibrant and people see things happening here.

It's paramount that the community support continues, because this is what makes Sandpoint what it is. You don't bring up pictures of 'The Most Beautiful Town in the United States' without seeing pictures of the Panida. When people check out a new town, they look to see what's happening, so it's important that this particular corner stays lively.

The brief chapter between Karen's retirement and your coming aboard was a bit of a hiccup that affected community and business relationships. Did you have to pick up the pieces, or were you able to hit the ground running?

I did hit the ground running, mainly because I felt like some trust had been lost. I keep trying to rebuild that. I'm very much in the community and I do my best to be out there at meetings, with organizations and being interactive, because that's who I am. But there was a big reputation to overcome to get people back through the doors and getting them back on board with their love for the Panida.

And it's not hard to fall in love with the Panida - it takes no time at all.

Around the same time as the 'hiccup' period, there was also a fractious board environment. Do you see an opportunity to start anew there?

I'm hopeful that, when people see the stability, they are attracted to come back to being volunteers and come back to being on the board. We have operated with a very small board, in part for that reason, but now it's time to rebuild and expand and get some more talent.

I'd say to people who are passionate about the Panida: "Come and put your time in and give back to this gorgeous operation."

When you say, 'I'm Patricia Walker White and I'm with the Panida,' does it make your job easier?

It goes both ways. You say that and it's an instant recognition, but it's also an instant responsibility. If I'm in an art gallery or a chamber meeting or the grocery store, I'm always aware of it. It's not something I take lightly.

But it is nice to come into someplace where the reputation for the arts is already so embedded. I think, because people have lived here forever, they sometimes don't understand just how unique and special that is. Most towns would crave having that in place.

At this point in its history, what is the Panida's biggest strength and what is its biggest weakness?

The biggest strength is its history. People have memories here. You say, 'The Panida' and they instantly remember something from their own lives.

The lack of revenue is the biggest weakness. The thing that keeps me up at night is the fact that we can't make enough money to keep the doors open without financial support. We can't survive without it - and that scares me.

In an ideal scenario where everything is operating just as it should, what does the Panida look like? What would be in place?

I would love for us to have financial stability so that this is protected for future generations. They're the generation that's going to have to take care of it and I'd like for them to understand the importance of its history. I mean, how many buildings that were built in 1927 are going to be preserved and still around that haven't been replaced by a shiny, new penny? Not very many.

Have you had occasion to just walk around this place and read it like a book? And, if so, what's the synopsis?

That's an interesting way to look at it. I often do that - walk around and soak in a section, a chapter, that I haven't soaked in before. I've been in every inch of it, but have I really absorbed what happened there? I thought I had, until I went to the basement. I thought, 'There are more stories down here than I was not aware of.'

I've pulled out old props and looked at old photos. I've read articles and old board meeting notes. Those things speak another volume about keeping the Panida alive. I'm very grateful to all the people who contributed over all those years to keep this place going and did all the upgrades that have been so crucial.

But I really wouldn't call it a book, because a book has an end. It's more like a journal, because a journal is ongoing.

If someone looked back 50 years from now, what would your journal entry say?

Patricia's entry is about exploring new ideas and holding on to the old ones. I hope it says that the Panida set itself up for the future and created new opportunities for the arts.