Membership is down. That’s what outgoing Arts of the Pamlico Executive Director Joey Toler told a group last week at a gathering at Elmwood 1820 Bed & Breakfast. The event was one of the last things on Toler’s agenda and one designed to encourage a new generation of arts patrons.

“Young Patrons” is a new project for Arts of the Pamlico, one inspired by AOP board member Jeffery Phipps, who quickly enlisted the help of younger people already invested in the arts. Along with Phipps, Thursday’s event was hosted by Nicole Jackson and Lilly Roberson Jones, both of who invited friends and acquaintances that had one thing in common: they were well under the average age of AOP’s current membership.

“Our goal is to get more young people involved in Arts of the Pamlico,” Phipps said. ‘We want to get their input, what they want to see happen at the Turnage, things that they’re interested in and basically educate them about what we’ve done and where we want to go.”

Jackson and Jones handed out questionnaires to everyone who walked in the door, asking for that exact information.

“There’s a large, young group of people in this town that I don’t feel like know about (Arts of the Pamlico) or know that it’s an option,” Jones said.

“The more people fill it out, the more we know what people want,” Jackson said.

Jackson also said the questionnaires are available at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre for anyone who’d like to participate in the fact-finding mission.

The event last week, however, was just as educational for the many who attended as Phipps, Toler and new Executive Director Debra Torrence spoke about local arts: Phipps about the Turnage Theater’s history; Toler, about Arts of the Pamlico’s history and when the two merged into one; and Torrence, about future plans, ideas and programs just now taking shape.

Phipps described “Mr. Turnage’s” original vaudeville theater, upstairs from what is known as the Turnage Theater, and how the current theater was built in response to patrons being unable to hear dialogue in films because of noise from the street outside — the theater had no air conditioning. His solution, Phipps said, was to add another theater, this one set farther back from the street.

“He built a stage in it just in case ‘talkie’ films were just a flash in the pan,” Phipps said.

Toler spoke about the origins of Arts of the Pamlico, one of the oldest arts councils in the state and how it has been financially healthy over its 40-plus-year lifespan. While purchase of the Turnage Theatre in 2013 offered plenty of opportunity for the organization’s growth, it also represented a tremendous amount of deliberation by the board, as well as a tremendous outpouring of funds, he said. He said membership was down for AOP, in part because the staunch arts supporters of so many years were “fading away.”

Torrence spoke about the future of the Turnage and the many programs and changes that are already in the works: AOP will be partnering with local restaurants to turn the next community theater play into dinner theater; $5 movies covering a range of genres, from classics to kids’ animation; partnering with the Durham Symphony to play onstage beneath silent movies; artists working in the theater’s front window; moving all offices currently located downstairs to create more space for the gallery and for artists working.

All three made it known that without the support of younger generations, the arts opportunities, performances and more offered by AOP would not be around for future generations.

“It’s very, very important that we preserve this,” Phipps said.

“We need you to get involved to help sustain what we started over 40 years ago,” Toler said. “We need not only to survive — we need to thrive.”