A crowd discusses the announcement of ArtSpace’s purchase of the next-door building, formerly occupied by Vivace.
Jacob Espinosa
LIMA —ArtSpace/Lima announced a new venture Friday that will see a long-empty space put to use again.
The local art gallery cut the ribbon and unveiled the new window paint at the former Vivace space next door as it announced that it purchased the room for new and exciting activities.
“We had a very generous donor that stepped up and purchased the building for us and now what we’ll be doing for the next three years is redoing it because this is the only historic side that still exists in the square,” Sally Windle, Executive Director of the gallery said. “So we’re going to pursue that bit by bit and it will allow us to do more exhibits, classes and more ideas as we find new things that we want to attempt with the community because they’ve given us so many great ideas for us to do our outreach and enrich the community. Plus, it’s a part of downtown where everything is rebuilding and there’s a new enthusiasm and inspiration.”
ArtSpace had been keeping the announcement a surprise, but with the new paint, it should serve to spur the community’s imagination as ArtSpace inspects the building and makes its plans.
“What we need to do is make sure that the building is fundamentally sound and we’ve got that lined up already,” ArtSpace Board President Joe Bonifas said. “And then we’ll continue to decide what avenues we want to deal with. One of the things that we’ve talked about, and this is just brainstorming, was to possibly make some part of it become a permanent museum where people can come in and check out the works that have been donated and purchased over the years. Because a lot of our works that we have on loan or gifted, are not being displayed because we just don’t have the room. And the idea of having galleries for individual artists is another element that would be interesting and fun to do.”
ArtSpace actually shares floors with the next-door building, making it easier to potentially knock down walls and expand the current space if plans call for it. But the most important thing is to showcase artists and help them practice.
“There are a lot of things that have been suggested,” Windle said. “But we want to make sure that we embrace and highlight artists for them to exhibit or practice. And now we’ll have a bigger space to do that.”
With the recent addition of a new wheelchair lift to improve accessibility, ArtSpace is making big strides lately and it is not lost on the administrators.
“We can go on and on about the positivity of what we have here, but it’s incredible,” Bonifas said. “If you were to compare this to other cities this size having this, you’re not going to find it. This has really boosted us as far as the viability of growing the arts, exponentially.”
For more information or to stay up to date on what ArtSpace has planned, visit the website and social media pages.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
