CARTHAGE — Auburn teacher John Swan swiped chairs last Wednesday in preparation for reopening Skye Theater Performing Arts Center for its ninth season.

Sitting high atop Winter Hill, the center reflects the work of volunteers, drawn by their love of music, mostly Celtic music, founder and owner Phil McIntyre said.

While closed the past six weeks, the center’s lobby has been transformed, beautiful woods highlight new counters, ones restored from Mr. Paperback’s closing in Farmington, he said. Two hundred were expected on this February night to hear the music of the Barra MacNeils before they move on to New York for the weekend.

Creating the center from the inside out, the theater shows a sense of community, he said. The town has fewer than 500 residents.

Downeast Magazine called Skye Theater “the best hidden gem,” he said. It named it the Performing Arts Center of the year for 2012.

Except for electricians, all the work to turn the former classic Ford sales salvage yard into a performing arts center that attracts artists from all over the world was done by McIntyre, his wife and a core of volunteers.

McIntyre has established the local music culture over the last nine years as a platform to launch the Crossroads International Celtic Festival with activities planned in towns throughout Oxford and Franklin counties from Sept. 11-15, he said.

It’s a collaboration that not only brings top artists to the area but is also expected to boost cultural tourism in Western Maine. It’s based on Celtic Colours Festival in Nova Scotia, a nine-day festival that raises millions for the local economy, he said.

An auctioneer and owner of 1,200 antique Ford vehicles until he hurt his back in 2004, McIntyre took the showmanship skills needed for auctions and his love of cars and stepped into music. He organized 60 events at Skye Theater and more than 200 around New Hampshire last year, he said.

Instead of trying to make Skye Theater a destination for Celtic world-class performers from Canada, Ireland and Scotland, he will schedule shows throughout Maine and one at Skye Theater on Wednesdays as part of their tour. They’ll land in Boston, come to Maine, stay in an apartment above the theatre and then travel to the next stop on their tour, he said.

Music lovers respond, traveling the dirt, uphill road to the theater, where views of local mountains and valleys are spectacular.

A survey of patrons last July showed 130 people came specifically to Maine to the Carthage theater from a variety of states, he said.

The newly designed lobby becomes a hub for refreshments, sales of artist materials and an opportunity for local businesses to share themselves with the theater patrons, a business exchange, he said.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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