Due to the limitations of the Mississippi summer heat, the previously un-air conditioned Strand Theatre mostly sat unused during the long summer months, but not anymore.

Daniel Boone, who has been showing films at the theater for four years said now that the building has heating and air conditioning, the programming can continue year-round.

“For three years running we only could do any programming in the spring and the fall because as you can imagine, this place got too hot and too cold,” he said. “For three years we did a few weeks in the spring and a few weeks in the fall, and last year in 2014 one of our supporters said, ‘You’ve got to do something about this; I want more entertainment.’”

Boone said that supporter gave them money to use as a seed to begin collecting donations to purchase a heating and air system.

“We found some people who allowed the two of us (Daniel Boone and Jack Burns) to do most of the installation of the system under professional guidance,” he said. “We were able to do much of the labor.”

The group was able to raise $13,000 from the community and with that they were able to do what would have been a $50,000 air conditioner installation, Boone said.

“This is Mississippi and it still struggles,” he said. “It’s better to keep us cool than it is to keep us warm because there is an unheated area under us. No matter how much heat we put in here, cold air still seeps in from the floor, but in the summertime it’s actually pretty comfortable.”

Boone said Burns uses the space to put on live shows with his nonprofit organization Westside Theatre Foundation.

“This year they’ve been on stage for four shows so far,” he said. “That’s 13 or so shows we’ve done so far this year.”

Boone said they also do some live music, though it is a very small part of what goes on at the Strand Theatre for licensing reasons.

“We license a show,” he said. “We go through all the legal things to put on a play. If I’m doing film, I pay the licensing for those films, but music is different because we have to have contracts with music publishers and because of complications in that department, we’re not putting on a lot of live music here.”

Boone said they typically show one film per week when Burns is not putting on plays.

“This is what’s called art house movies, which means they’re foreign films, documentaries, independent films and classic films,” he said. “It’s really kind of four categories. What the term art house films really means is not mainstream.”

Boone said someone else is doing mainstream movies, so there’s no need for them to do so.

“We have some very cool movies, and we have something for everyone,” he said.

This weekend, Boone will be showing two documentary films about artists, including “Bending Sticks” by Kenny Dalsheimer and Penelope Maunsell, and audience members will have the opportunity to meet the filmmakers via Skype after the documentaries are over. The viewings will begin Saturday at 7 p.m.

Tickets may be purchased at Highway 61 Coffeehouse for $5 or at the door for $7.