Arts center repairs get under way

With major repairs beginning on its downtown gallery and a new director, the Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History is starting a new chapter.

A fire one year ago caused more than $550,000 in damage to the building and exhibits on display. The building, owned by the LCSC Foundation, is more than 125 years old and for a while its future was uncertain.

Insurance money is covering all repair costs and a few upgrades, like adding a sprinkler system, said Kathy Martin, dean for community programs at LCSC.

"I'm just really excited we're going to move back in. I know a lot of people have been concerned about whether that was going to happen," she said.

The Kooskia-based company Idaho Stage was awarded the contract to repair the building. Work is expected to be finished in July. The total cost of repairs was less than $450,000, Martin said. So far the college is contributing about $6,000, which will be used to add insulation to the attic for energy efficiency.

The floor plan will be much the same but there will be some changes. The permanent Chinese Beuk Aie Temple exhibit, which was on the second floor of the center, will be relocated to the main floor, unless the college can come up with funding for an elevator. Because of limited space the exhibit will be slightly smaller. Grants and other funding sources could pay for an elevator, but even if those come through, the exhibit will be smaller because a fire escape is being added to the upstairs room where it was housed, Martin said.

"We're still trying to figure out exactly what that will look like," Martin said about how the exhibit will change.

The center will also no longer have a gift shop.

The building's historic nature and its downtown location weighted the college's decision to reopen at the location. Martin said the college likes having a downtown presence, and the fact that the building is across the street from college dorms was a plus.

"It certainly will be an improvement over what we had before in terms of the sprinkler system and energy efficiency, but it's still an old building," she said. "Ideally we'd have a space built for a gallery but we're doing the best we can for it."

A new director of the center, Lisa Jones, starts work Monday. Jones is the director of Continuing Education, which includes the center and the spring festival Art Under the Elms. Previously Jones was the Whitman County program director at the Inland Northwest Chapter of the American Red Cross. She's working on a master's degree in communication and leadership at Gonzaga University and has a bachelor's degree in public relations from Central Washington University.

Jones' background in event planning, fundraising and volunteer work helped get her the job, Martin said.

The center's previous director, Deborah Snyder, left in March for a job as district manager in the Lewiston office of the American Red Cross of Greater Idaho Chapter.

Martin said college officials have not yet determined what they will do with the Talkington Collection, an array of historic artifacts and donations that were stored in the center's basement at the time of the fire. Items remain in storage at another location. A committee will be formed to help decide what is a part of the collection and what should be done with it, she said

While the center is owned by the foundation, LCSC got permission from the State Board of Education to transfer ownership to the college. The transfer will occur when repairs are completed. The decision to transfer the holding was made because the foundation does not want to be in the asset-managing business any longer, Martin said

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Bauer may be contacted at jkbauer@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2263.