Mayor looking to see if private funds can be raised for interior upgrades

By Leah Shaffer

A deadline within a deadline was essentially set for the Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

During Tuesday’s meeting, a majority on the council voted to table funding for interior upgrades to the Art Center facility until the second meeting in October. The idea is to wait and see if the approximately $80,000 needed for the upgrades could come through in private funding.

If so, Mayor Phil Young said he’d be comfortable funding the interior upgrades, which would bring the building up to code in time for a January opening. Improvements would include adding a second restroom and making changes to the doors in keeping with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations.

During the Tuesday meeting, the City Council did approve funding for expansion of the parking lot, which would add 26 stalls to the site at 7650 Equitable Drive.

In approving the $91,000 for parking lot expansion now, the city will be able to make the changes in time to open the Art Center by mid-January of 2009. In approving the parking funding, Mayor Young noted that, to not do so would run the risk of pushing the work back six months.

“It’s hard to raise private dollars for a parking lot,” he noted.

However, to induce private funding dollars to come in, he was in favor of holding off funding the interior improvements.

That work would only take approximately 60 days, and is not impacted by winter weather.

“I don’t think we’ve reached that deadline yet,” added Young.

The Friends of the Art Center have a $25,000 donation for the facility, and would need approximately $55,000 more to fund interior improvements.

Friends of the Art Center

Council Member Jon Duckstad was the one council member voting against funding the parking lot improvements.

Both Council Members Kathy Nelson and Sherry Butcher were in favor of the city funding both the parking lot improvements and interior improvements.

Butcher said she'd like see the Art Center improvements get underway as soon as possible as a boost for awareness and fundraising. She added that she would really like to see them prepare the building so it can be used to offer children's programs in the summer.

Speaking about the push to open the Art Center by January, Council Member Brad Aho noted that “we’re not married to any particular opening start date.”

“I think it does make good sense to do the parking lot now, which gives us the opportunity to potentially open it in January if we are able to raise the funds to do that.”

Council Member Kathy Nelson said she's heard from people who are saying the city needs to show a commitment to the Art Center. “The city has to make the commitment,” she said.

Her concern was echoed by Ann Rorem, chair of city’s Arts and Culture Commission, who also is involved with Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center. Speaking before the council, Rorem said their fundraising committee was concerned they may be losing momentum in their fundraising efforts, without the city showing some support by beginning some of the work that would be necessary to even open the building.

“That’s just a concern we have.”

Before discussing the Art Center funding, council members heard from Friends of the Art Center Chair Stacy Desai. Friends of the Eden Prairie Art Center has been up and running for seven weeks. In that time, the group (that includes about 12 members) has created a Web site (www.edenprairieartcenter.com) and set about writing grants, seeking private and corporate donors and building awareness of the Art Center. To create awareness, the group has organized three art-making events:

First up is a free event to be held at 9 a.m. Sept. 27, at the upper level of the Community Center. The event, for pre-K to fourth-grade students will include activities to make pinwheels and cards.The second event will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Oct. 11, for fifth- to eighth-graders at the Central Middle School cafeteria. That event will cost $5. On Nov. 15, a collaborative art-making event for high school students will be held at Eden Prairie High School.

“The purpose of these three events is to raise awareness.”

The final event for the season will include a fundraiser and silent auction on Dec. 6.

Desai explained that they set a $500,000 fundraising goal to cover capital costs and two years of operating costs at the Art Center. Funds would cover purchase of kiln and glass blowing equipment for the Art Center. Desai noted that the focus of the group is to fundraise, not set programming. When asked about the likelihood of the group raising $500,000, she said it might be tough, but they are going to continue to pursue it.

“Yes, it's attainable.”