Dear Editor

Alexander Graham Bell said, “When one door closes, another opens.” Five years ago, doors were closing left and right in Austin.

The Austin Area Art Center, a membership-based visual arts organization and community asset for decades, had problems. The furnace that heated their rented space at Oak Park Mall had stopped working and Oak Park Mall itself was soon to be closed.

The ‘old bank building’ at 300 North Main Street, one of downtown’s anchor properties, sat vacant for going on seven years. Another block down, there was an empty lot where a 2009 fire had wiped out several historic buildings.

Five years ago, doors were also opening left and right in Austin. The Vision 2020 Destination Downtown committee was working hard to revitalize the retail district. The Austin ArtWorks Festival had been established in 2012, demonstrating community support for the arts at a new level.

Community leader Belita Schindler was paying attention to all those opening and closing doors and she proposed a radical idea: What if Austin Area Arts, the non profit that owned and operated the Paramount Theatre and hosted the ArtWorks Festival, merged with the Austin Area Art Center and created a new visual arts center in downtown Austin? The vacant old bank building would be an ideal location.

Belita’s radical vision became reality on August 21, 2014 when the Austin ArtWorks Center opened. It is the only visual arts center and the only clay studio in Mower County with a clay workshop, ‘clean’ classroom for glass and jewelry, kiln, retail space and two galleries which are also used as classrooms.

In one short year, the two non-profits had merged, negotiated a lease with building owner Pat Bradley, conducted a capital campaign, completed a $488,000 interior remodel, created a business plan based on interviews with existing art centers in the region, recruited 35 artists to sell work in the retail space and scheduled a slate of youth and adult art education classes.

Today, four years later, the Austin ArtWorks Center is celebrating our successes. The Center will host Featured Artist Michael Sweere, a free acoustic music stage, exhibit by sculptor Sandra Haff and three trunk show artists in the retail space during the 2018 Austin ArtWorks Festival. In 2017, the Austin ArtWorks Center was home to 8 gallery shows, 7 open jam sessions, 2 music concerts, 6 family art studios, 50 open watercolor studios, 60 classes for youth and adults, and two kids summer day camps; serving 968 adults and 722 children. The retail space generated approximately $40,000 in commissions to 100 plus artists, most with ties to Austin.

As we celebrate, it is fitting that we thank all those who support the Austin ArtWorks Center as volunteers, donors and patrons. We are grateful for the donors to the 2014 capital campaign for the building remodel including the Hormel Foundation, Pat and Gary Ray, Jeff and LeeAnn Ettinger, Dick and Belita Schindler, Austin Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Ruth Wunderlich, Mayo Clinic Health System Austin, the City of Austin, Mahlon and Karen Schneider, Randy and Wendy Kramer, Bonnie and Tim Rietz, Jerry and Mary Anne Wolesky and Keith and Mary Kleis. We are proud to be among Vision 2020’s successful initiatives and are indebted to then co-chairs of the Destination Downtown committee, Stephnee Leathers and Kelsey Ritchie.

We have also been celebrating a crop of new neighbors in downtown Austin including the Spam Museum (2016), Sweet Reads Candy and Books (2016), Rave Nutrition (2017) and Gravity Storm Brewery (2018). We expect to see Real Deals, Sister Moon Herbals and Fett’s Hut open downtown before the year is out. As usual, doors are opening left and right in Austin and we couldn’t be happier!

On behalf of the board, staff and volunteers of Austin Area Arts, thank you for joining with us to make the Arts Work for Austin.

Sincerely, Laura Helle

Executive Director

Austin