As thousands of Sundance Festivalgoers prepare to line-up to see films from the opening night premiere of In Bruges to the closing screening of CSNY Deja Vu at the Eccles Theatre, the largest theatre venue in Park City will be celebrating more than film this January. On January 10th, 2008, the George & Delores Dore Eccles Center for the Performing Arts marks its 10th anniversary.

A decade ago, a group of Park City locals teamed up with the Park City School District to build a community theatre. This grass-roots, joint partnership innovatively proposed to share a theatre space 50-50 between the community and the school incorporating arts outreach across socio-economic boundaries as its core mission. Fundraising efforts soon soared beyond their original goal of building a modest theatre and eventually transformed into the arts landmark it is today along with the Park City Performing Arts Foundation bringing dance, music, theatre, and many other performing arts to the area.

Teri Orr, Executive Director of the Park City Performing Arts Foundation, described this surprising growth, "We are very much a not-for-profit. We have no corporate sponsors and all of our concert series are underwritten by local groups... In the summer we produce the outdoor concert series at Deer Valley and these proceeds help fund our youth programming." The importance of the arts on this community can easily be seen in the numbers as PCPAF operated on an annual budget of $350,000 in their first year of programming and now in their tenth year they are close to $3 million.

Along with the success of this partnership with the school district, the Eccles has also been working with Sundance for the past ten years not just during the Festival, but with its youth programming throughout the school year. "It means a lot to offer kids a free arts education and Sundance is a big part. Year-round filmmakers make time available to students by coming to the school to discuss subjects from animation to overcoming the obstacles of becoming a filmmaker whose English is your second language." Orr continued, "No other place has this type of program and no other high school in America has Sundance."

The Sundance Film Festival has also greatly benefited from the willingness of the Eccles Theatre to house new explorations in independent film. In 1998, the Festival changed considerably when this 1,300 seat theatre was introduced to the mix. More communal experiences were shared as larger audiences were able to screen cutting-edge films at the Eccles. Beginning with the Eccles's inaugural year many emerging voices were offered a major platform including, Darren Aronofsky's π, Chris Eyre's Smoke Signals, Marc Levin's Slam, and Walter Salles's Central Station. Today the independent filmmaking community continues to feel the effects of the doors opened by the Eccles Theatre.