NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Community Arts Trust has received another grant in the amount of more than $100,000 for improvements to The Workroom, a 3,800-square-foot space used for gallery exhibitions and theatrical performances.

The Workroom is located at 33 Hawley, the community arts facility run by the trust. The grant, awarded by the state-funded Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Cultural Facilities Fund, will allow for improvements to the sound and lighting systems within the Workroom, boosting the quality for theater performance in the space.

“Performances are already happening, but they’re happening with inadequate equipment, sort of a hodgepodge of things,” said Dorothy Nemetz, a member of the board of directors for the trust. “Structurally, the room is complete, with all the soundproofing and a lighting grid system, but the equipment needs to be done.”

In addition to the lighting and sound improvements, Nemetz said the room also needs to install proper seating before the trust considers it completed. The grant only takes up a fraction of the estimated $400,000 cost for the needed improvements, according to Nemetz, with the remaining funds to matched by the trust and from contributions from community donors.

“Having that kind of space that is community accessible, both for creation and presentation, and having it fully kitted out and functional will be a real asset,” Nemetz said. “It can’t really meet its potential and really serve the community until it is.”

The latest grant is the sixth time that 33 Hawley, which reopened in December 2023 after undergoing major renovations, has received grant funding from the Cultural Facilities Fund. The facility also benefited from a $2.5 million federal Community Project Funding grant secured by U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern.

“We are immensely appreciative of the Cultural Facilities Fund’s continued investment in the Arts Trust and 33 Hawley,” Northampton Community Arts Trust Fund President Anya Brickman Raredon said in a statement. “The Workroom is already a popular venue, and once we have appropriate light and sound systems it will reach its full potential as a unique space designed to inspire, incubate, and present artistic works to fully serve the community.”

The Workroom space at 33 Hawley is primarily used by Available Potential Enterprises (A.P.E.), a artist-led nonprofit that administers the space to a cooperative of theater groups, in which the groups pay an annual fee and then are allocated regular space for performances, rehearsals and more during the year. The Workroom is also available for artist residencies, workshops and other events.

Other organizations based at 33 Hawley include the Northampton Center for the Arts and Northampton Open Media. Other funding for the facility has come from the city of Northampton, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Smith College.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazette.com.