Partly Cloudy/Windy / 72° F
Lots happening at the new art space
Published 11:41am Thursday, September 20, 2012It’s technically Michael Burgraff’s turn to write the arts column, but he has asked me to fill in for him due to his extremely busy schedule, which happens to involve some demolition and renovation work in our newly acquired space above the Senior Center.
You may have noticed a lot of noise and dust on Lincoln Ave, including a giant chute going from a second story window into a dumpster on the street. That would be A Center for the Arts, getting to work on developing our new space. And it’s coming along.
We want to send out a huge thank-you to Patrick Griffin and his Sentence-To-Serve crew who have done a tremendous amount of work for us. Without that hard-working crew, we wouldn’t be nearly as far along on this project as we are now.
The gentlemen that came last week and this week have done very hard manual labor, knocking down walls and cleaning up debris.
We also want to thank all of the individuals from our community that have come and lent a hand to this effort. Your volunteer labor was and is greatly appreciated! We couldn’t do what we do without the help of all the amazing people who volunteer their time, skill, and energy.
In fact, we are still in need of more volunteers and would welcome any and all help from any of you out there who might be interested in getting your hands dirty.
Although we are in the midst of heavy-duty demolition and renovation, the space has already been and continues to be used by various groups. The Fergus Falls School of Dance has used space up there for their dance classes. We have a private voice instructor giving voice lessons. And the Center’s Children’s Choirs will also be meeting up there.
When all is said and done, we will have two rehearsal spaces available for various groups to rent and use. One is much larger, about the size of our stage, and will be used regularly by the Fergus Falls School of Dance.
The other is a bit smaller, but will still be great for classes, rehearsals, and meetings. We will also have a common room that could be used for small classes or meetings as well.
Besides these larger spaces, we have eight small rooms that can be used as studio spaces for various purposes. These rooms are available for rent by the month, and would have their own lock and key to be used as private studio space for artists.
We currently have three rooms already spoken for; being used for private voice lessons, a visual artist, and headquarters for a theater group. We still have four to five rooms available to rent. Our monthly rental rate for these spaces will be $50/month.
If you are interested in reserving a space, please contact us as soon as possible. We will gladly give you a tour and show you which rooms are still available. Our hope is that everything will be ready by the first of the New Year. At the rate we’re going, that seems like a very realistic possibility. We are getting confirmations from people now, and holding spaces for them.
We welcome anyone to come and take a look at what we’re doing, and we’ll gladly give you’re a tour and explain our plans to you.
We are looking forward to providing another resource for the community and bringing an even greater concentration of arts activities into downtown Fergus Falls.
Kristin Fondriest is the executive assistant for A Center for the Arts in downtown Fergus Falls.
