A ceremonial ribbon was cut to mark the fifth anniversary of a Washington venue Monday night.

The Washington Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors helped the Washington Area Performing Arts and Events Center (WAPAEC) celebrate the occasion, which was followed by a show from acapella group Ball in the House. The venue, which is attached to Washington High School, was a joint venture of the school district and the city. WAPAEC Operations and Advisory Committee Member Jan Gallagher describes hers and Bob Youngquist’s involvement in the facility’s origins, “Well, we were looking at possibly building a new high school and there was not an auditorium in the plan, and Bob and I had worked together doing theater at the high school and we just thought it was absolutely necessary to have an auditorium in the high school. And we got together with a lot of our friends who had also worked with kids in theater and music and they all agreed. And so we just kept working at it, and working at it, and working at it, until we got enough believers to make it happen.”

The facility was built with funding from many local donors, a school bond levy, and support from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation and the Vision Iowa Community Attraction and Tourism Fund. Monday’s ribbon cutting also served as a celebration of the new partnership between WAPAEC and the Washington Concert Association that has been around for 54 years to bring more arts programming to Washington.