Atlantic City Theater To Be Transformed Into Cultural Arts Center For Jazz And Black History

The theater will be taken over by the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation.

The legendary Dante Hall Theater in Atlantic City, New Jersey, will become a new beacon for the area’s jazz and Black history.

The theater will be revitalized into a cultural arts center that will touch on Atlantic City’s jazz presence and racial discrimination at its beaches. According to NJ.com, a local foundation that promotes the city’s Black history, the Chicken Bone Beach Historical Foundation, will launch new programming at the space.

The organization recently obtained a $1.8 million grant from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority in November. It emerged as one of 12 groups given the monetary award. It aims to transform unused properties in the state to benefit the surrounding community.

With the funding in tow, the foundation can now celebrate the city’s place in Jazz music. Moreover, they can also document its Black residents’ fight for integration. They plan to open a museum detailing this unique history.

“This is what we wanted since 2005 and now it’s materializing,“ said Henrietta Shelton, founder of the Chicken Bone Beach foundation. “It’s unbelievable what we’re going to be able to do in the art form, in that building.”

Established in the 1990s, the foundation’s namesake comes from the shoreline designated for Black beachgoers. Its name stemmed from racist stereotypes of Black families bringing fried chicken for a beach picnic. However, residents have since reclaimed the name and this history. The beach also gained recognition as a historic site on New Jersey’s Black Heritage Trail.

The organization’s leaders plan to buy a 250-seat theater. While still preserving the theater’s seating and integrity, they will renovate its upper floors to classrooms for teaching music. Furthermore, the theater’s original use will still shine through concerts and performances.

Chicken Bone beach once hosted artists from Sammy Davis Jr. to Louis Armstrong to entertain Black attendees. Now, the foundation hopes to recreate the magic that once delighted Black audiences during the early to mid-20th century.

Shelton added, “Now we can do even more powerful things in that building — indoor concerts, we can have plays, it’s going to be a Mecca.”

Originally built in the 1920s, Dante Hall has remained vacant since 2020. However, the organization plans to immediately use the space for its programming, specifically choir practice, once the purchase closes.

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