мÓƶà¶à¿ª½±¼Ç¼

Here are мÓƶà¶à¿ª½±¼Ç¼'s top five arts and culture stories of 2014:

1. The Schwartz Family Performing Arts Center project is cancelled.Ìý°Õ³ó±ð — and — fourth venue for the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival was in 2014 after the cost of defending it from neighbor Joe Camardo's litigation became too prohibitive, festival leadership said. The cancellation of the $7.8 million, 300-seat theater wasn't just lamented by the festival: Local business owners were also by the decision and the foot traffic it deprived them of. The festival is "actively prospecting" for a new site to call its fourth home, Producing Artistic Director Brett Smock , but there's no denying the light at the end of the tunnel got a little dimmer in 2014.

2. Ed Sayles steps down from the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival. Ed Sayles, the man who oversaw more than 30 years of artistic and commercial growth for the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, and eventually the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, as their producing director in June. Sayles left behind a towering in local theater: Taking the playhouse from annual of 13,000 to 50,000, expanding its youth theater program, upgrading its facilities. With the festival, however, Sayles helped set the stage for the next phase in Auburn's theater scene, one with untold artistic potential.

3. Three breweries open in Cayuga County. If you looked at a of New York's breweries before 2014, it would have seemed as though some kind of teetotaling force field surrounded Cayuga County. But over the course of the year, the area went from zero to three, with , and all opening their doors — and their taps. Add in the new  in downtown Auburn, and the area was awash in enthusiasm for craft beer this year.

4. The Sterling Renaissance Festival struggles financially. It's doubtful even its own fortune tellers could divine the future of the Sterling Renaissance Festival in 2014. The popular summer attraction less than three weeks before the July opening of its 38th season that it needed to raise $300,000, lest the season be cancelled. Owner Doug Waterbury eventually secured a bank loan to cover the gap, but the festival was not out of the woods yet. In November, Cayuga County Treasurer James Orman tax foreclosure proceedings against the festival due to a debt of more than $70,000. Waterbury has until Feb. 20 to repay it, leaving the festival's fate uncertain heading into 2015.

5. The Finger Lakes Drive-in secures a digital projector, and its future. With fewer movies being shown on film every year, the Finger Lakes Drive-in faced a dilemma entering 2014: . Investing in a new projector would cost about $75,000, and owner Paul Meyer struggled to make the mark through online crowd-funding. However, in July, Meyer he had signed the lease on a new 4K Christie CP4230 digital projector, allowing the lights at the state's longest continually open drive-in theater to stay on indefinitely.