The Picture House in Bronxville announced Sunday the opening of a new room in their theater called "The Studio."

According to Clayton Bushong, the executive director of The Picture House Regional Film Center, the room was previously used as an office and a storage room at the theater. He said the nonprofit was able to convert the space and open it up so that the public can now use it for education and community events.

"We wanted to give back to the community and make sure the community knows if they need [a] space and they want to use--they can come use it with us," Bushong said.

Bushong said the multi-use space can also be rented for birthday parties, meetings, and other gatherings.

It debuted to the public last month.

"The whole studio space is our first stage of a plan to make it into a big education space with a grant from [Sen.] Shelley Mayer," Bushong said.

Mayer's grant could also help them rethink the theater's other underutilized resources.

"We applied for it and we've been told we're going to get it," Bushong said.

Bushong added that he thinks this larger-phased project could get more people back into his theater to see films again.

"It's been hard post-pandemic to get people back into theaters," Bushong said. 

Ultimately, he hopes that these additions would help emphasize the theater's role in creating community within the village.