Another grand reopening

In celebration of its 75th anniversary and recent remodel, the Scera Center for the Arts held a ribbon cutting on Sept. 4.

The event included a dance performance and short speeches by Xango higher-ups, long-time fans of the Scera, and Orem City mayor pro tem Carl Hernandez.

The ribbon was cut by Miss Orem, Krystal Millard, and the newly revamped lobby was revealed. Walls were painted, new furniture was installed, and new art and framed mirrors freckled the walls. A new stained glass window (designed by Tom Holdman) has been installed, and another is soon to come.

The largest change was found in the concession area — they tore down the old candy booth, and centralized all concessions into a “Scoops” stand at the front of the lobby. The building was also brought up to code, with new fire safety and electrical systems.

How will this affect you? Well, it just might not.

Something people under 30 may take for granted is the Scera‘s heritage. It was opened in 1933, during the Great Depression, when a local leader in the LDS church decided that the community needed some way of keeping families together. They started showing eight-millimeter films weekly in a local high school’s auditorium.
The building we now know as the Scera Center was built in 1941. During that time, Geneva Steel was also being built, but if men in the community had any extra time to work, they would spend it helping out with this new theater.

A few years ago, the Scera was in financial trouble. The introduction of several new high-tech movie theaters like the Cinemark in Provo Towne Center and the Megaplex 8 at Thanksgiving Point were drawing crowds away from the now-aging theaters in Scera. Members of the community who remembered what Scera did for them when they were younger rallied together and donated what they could to keep the center alive. Then, the Scera entered into a five-year commitment with juice-producers Xango. The Xango Grand theater was installed about a year-and-a-half ago, and the center started seeing their audience come back.

The redecorated lobby is almost acting as a sign to the community, saying that the Scera theaters, Scera Shell, and Scera pool are still up and running, and still a place for families to be entertained together.