Editing Marion, Illinois (section)

== Arts and culture ==
Downtown Marion is home to the Little Egypt Arts Gallery operated by the Little Egypt Arts Association as well as the Williamson County Historical Society museum and the Marion Carnegie Library. The major arts and culture institution though is the Marion Cultural and Civic Center.

=== Marion Cultural and Civic Center ===
In 2004, the Marion Civic Center was awarded the Frank Lloyd Wright Award - Special Recognition from the American Institute of Architects, Illinois Chapter, at the organization's annual ceremony. The {{convert|35000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} facility, designed by White and Borgognoni Architects, was completed in June 2004. After a 1997 fire destroyed the city's former civic center, the new facility was crafted using parts of the old Orpheum Theater building.

The grand opening of the Orpheum Theatre was on January 2, 1922. Built in the southwest corner of the downtown square, she was the flagship of a chain of vaudeville and moving picture theaters constructed to tap into the wealth generated by agriculture and mining in Southern Illinois. The Orpheum Theatre sat over 900, and was ornately decorated in a mix of Renaissance and Neoclassical styles, complete with gold leaf, elaborate plasterwork, and a multicolored terra-cotta facade.

The Orpheum was quite successful until the advent of television. Decreasing profits forced the Orpheum to exclusively be a motion picture theater in the mid-1950s and to close in 1971. The City of Marion purchased the building in 1973 with the intent of constructing a parking lot. The mayor and the city council reconsidered their plan when they found that their citizenry was in favor of restoring the old theater for use by the community as a cultural and entertainment center.

During the early morning hours, of March 10, 1997, a blaze quickly raced through the Civic Center, and totally gutted the theater, leaving it a smoldering shell after the blaze was put out. The facade of the Orpheum was salvaged, but the remainder of the theater was razed, and in 2000, it was decided that a new Cultural and Civic Center would be built on the site of the old Orpheum and a couple of other demolished neighboring structures.<ref>"History." Marion Cultural and Civic Center website. {{cite web |url=http://www.marionccc.org/history.html |title=Marion Cultural and Civic Center |access-date=2011-02-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990820143301/http://marionccc.org/history.html |archive-date=1999-08-20 }}</ref>
{{wide image|Marion, IL 1910 Pan. Public Sq photo.jpg|1000px|alt=Marion, 1910|Marion, 1910}}

===Sister city===
Marion became a sister city to [[Kanie, Aichi|Kanie]], Japan, on March 26, 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cityofmarionil.gov/sister-city/ |title=Sister City |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |website=City of Marion |publisher=City of Marion |access-date=May 9, 2019}}</ref>