A round of applause, please, for the local arts boosters behind rejuvenation of the Shea Theater in downtown Turners Falls.

One year into its stewardship of the nearly 40-year-old, town-owned theater on Avenue A, the Shea Theater Arts Center has raised about $300,000 for a much-needed facelift. Overdue renovations are wrapping up, with installation of new sound and lighting equipment. The theater has already overhauled the lobby and concession area, replaced carpeting, painted, refinished hardwood flooring, renovated the offices and performers’ rooms and replaced the roof and the building’s heating and air conditioning.

As significant are the programming changes planned by the new community-based nonprofit that replaced a similar group that had run the theater the decade before. The earlier group bowed out in the face of concern that new blood and ideas were needed to maximize the potential of the Shea as a cultural engine for Turners Falls and Franklin County.

Now, as the new Shea board begins its second year, it has signed up a new director, Linda Tardif, who was hired to help to fulfill the board’s promise to diversify and expand its cultural programming and to attract more people to downtown.

Josh Goldman, treasurer of the board, said the renovations to the 300-seat theater were a community effort, but he wants expanded programming to be a community endeavor, as well.

“It’s an invitation for people to come and bring ideas for what they want to see happen in the theater,” he said.

Tardif and the board hope to turn the Shea into a stop for national tours traveling between New York and Boston.

The theater is awaiting state ratification of a liquor license granted by the selectmen to enhance its ability to book acts and attract larger audiences from afar.

At the same time the theater board wants to keep the space open to local residents, with the auditorium, and even the lobby, used for anything from a practice space, to a rock concert or employee training.

Northampton radio personality and Turners Falls resident Christopher “Monte” Belmonte, who led Shea Theater Arts Center’s takeover of the theater, promised to bring in larger acts that would increase revenue while striking a balance between the bigger performers and community theater.

So far he and the new board seem to have kept to that promise, and deserve lots of credit for what must have been lots of work. And their improvements will give a big boost to the town’s efforts to establish a state-recognized cultural district in Turners.

Renovations will wrap soon with installation of a new exterior marquee, only one of the outward manifestations of the activity that’s been going on behind the scenes for months now — and that we hope will become a big hit and big boost for the area’s creative economy and cultural scene.