Arts Place Inc

Programs: Facility operations - facility management has been a major responsibility for arts place, inc. Since 1983. Arts place operates three community arts facilities. These facilities are located as follows:portland - the portland facility was originally acquired in 1983 and renovated through a $500,000 capital campaign. Arts place completed a $2. 9 million project in december 2000 that tripled the space of the original structure. The expanded center includes a 283-seat theatre, three galleries, a reception and dining area known as goodrich hall, music and visual art studios, rehearsal and meeting rooms, and office space. The grounds include two parking lots, an arts park, and a structure housing a 3,000 lb. Gas kiln. A prominent feature of the portland center is its public art. These works include the massive tile relief mural, landscape's legacy by cleveland artist rhonda franklin. This ceramic installation was the result of a three-year project that included over 40 apprentices and volunteers. On the grounds may be found the bronze sculpture autumn by harold "tuck" langland of granger, indiana. Also on the grounds is a glass and stone sculpture oblio in blue by rockford, ohio artist james michael kahle. The wood sculpture, amazon, was created by the late arthur harshman, the chief designer for indiana glass and a member of the arts place board in its early years. The portland facility is home to an intensive year-round offering of exhibits, performances, and arts instruction. The facility also provides a unique teaching, meeting and celebration space for community groups, as well as local business and industry. Traffic at the portland center for the fiscal year ended june 30, 2015 was estimated at more than 30,000 visits. The board of directors has designated that the income from the ann h. Goodrich endowment be used for costs relating to facility operations. Three funds at the portland foundation have been established to provide for various costs of arts place's portland center. These include the maxwell and cornelia naas arts council fund at the portland foundation that serves as an endowment for major renovations and repairs to the portland facility. Another endowment for the maintenance of the facility was established through a bequest by the late helen barrenbrugge in fiscal year 2008. Also at the portland foundation, the hawkins community trust fund provides operating support for the portland facility. St. Marys - in late 2005, arts place assumed responsibility for the collective center, a small facility in downtown st. Mary's, ohio. The rented structure was originally opened in may of 2005 by a group of volunteers seeking to start an arts center. In late 2005, the board of directors agreed to accept the collective center as a program of arts place. Since that time the center has moved twice, once in 2007 and again in december 2011. The leased facility includes a classroom, a gallery, and office space. Local input for the operations of the collective center is provided by an advisory community board that reports to the arts place corporate board. Day-to-day operations are managed by a center director. In the spring of 2015 arts place was forced to move the collective center from its location at 142 east spring street in st. Marys due to the sale of the building. In may, the city of st. Marys voted to offer to purchase a building at 207 east spring street for the specific use by arts place for the collective center. Negotiations between the owner and the city of st. Marys through the st. Marys community improvement corporation (cic) concluded with purchase by the cic. A two-year lease was approved by the arts place board of directors at its august 2015 board meeting for a lease beginning september 1, 2015. A formal dedication of the new center is planned for january 2016. Hartford city - in late 2011 arts place entered into a 10-year lease with the city government of hartford city for the first floor of a building at 107 west washington street. Dedicated in january 2013 as the blackford county arts center, over $100,000 has been invested in improvements to the facility by the hartford city government, the blackford county commissioners, and through private contributions secured through a small capital campaign conducted by the community board. The blackford county arts center community board is an advisory group that reports to the arts place corporate board and provides local leadership. The blackford county arts center now includes music studios, a visual arts classroom, meeting space, and a gallery. In january 2015 the city of hartford city sold the entire property at 107 west washington street, along with the property at 111 west washington street to arts place.

musicworks - drawing the largest number of students in creativeworks is our music instruction program. Inspired by the music settlement movement, arts place began this music education program in 1983. Individual and group instruction is available in brass, guitar, harp, percussion, piano, orchestral strings, and woodwinds. Ensembles conducted include percussion, brass, orchestral strings, flute, and the jay county community band. Introductory music instruction for preschoolers was also offered through the first steps classes. Most students receive a weekly individual lesson and many participate in a weekly ensemble. The program continues to be offered at the blackford county arts center and the portland center of arts place.

arts in the parks - this popular program was launched in 1977 and continues to provide access to the arts for children during the summer months. Over 15,000 children have participated in the program since its inception. Nearly 1,200 participated in the summer 2015 program. This past summer, 13 communities in 5 counties in indiana and ohio were served. The workshops are designed for children ages 6 through 14 and provide intensive introductions to specific art-form mediums. Workshops are typically led by professional artists and arts educators, who are referred to as teaching artists. While most sessions are offered for a very modest fee, some activities in the program are free of charge. Scholarship assistance is available to any student meeting family income guidelines. In addition to classes designed specifically for children, a number of family sessions were also offered that allowed the entire family to participate in a class. Arts place also conducted its second arts in the parks festival in may 2015. Over 400 attended the event which was held on the ground of the portland center of arts place.

artworks - this program provides instruction in the visual arts. Class offerings, for both children and adults, included ceramics, drawing, painting (oil, watercolor, silk, and tempera), sculpture, weaving, as well as a number of day-long workshops. Instruction was provided at all three of the arts place centers. Exhibits - this program is conducted at all three arts place centers. Exhibits at the portland center are presented in the hugh n. Ronald gallery, and two smaller galleries, providing a highly flexible exhibition space. In 2014-2015, a number of one and two-person shows were presented, including exhibits by photographer mike lamm, native american artist marcia blacklidge, indianapolis painter julia zollman wickes, and others. The annual regional student art exhibition was once again presented at both the collective and portland centers. The exhibit featured the work of primary and secondary school students from east central indiana and west central ohio. The annual stitch n' chatter quilt show was hosted at our portland center along with the holiday show: alcove and friends. The blackford county arts center conducted its second juried art show in july 2014. The event signaled a much more active year-round exhibit schedule for the center. One of the highlights of the year was an exhibit of john lennon artwork that was donated to arts place by david hodge. The collective center continued its exhibit programming, with monthly changing displays up until its move from the old location. These included a metal-working exhibit by jason dues, a collective of photography from travels around the united states by deb borns and peg green, as well as exhibits by doug eblen, toni might, and dan brodbeck. Performances - presenting performing artists remains a central part of arts place programming. The 2014-2015 performance series at hall-moser theatre continued a tradition dating back to 1967. The performance series included the young folk and blue grass band run boy run, country artist mandy barnett, the annie sellick jazz quartet, american traditions singer joshua carswell, the new age duo montana skies, and edmund shaff in andrew edin's churchill. In addition to presenting touring artists at the portland center, arts place also presented performances at the hudson family park amphitheatre in portland. These included the souled out band, spike and the bulldogs, miller, thaddeus rex, and the jay county community band. Arts place also presented recitals by ball state graduate students, as well as a special fund-raiser for musicworks featuring former musicworks student and classical guitarist zec landers. Arts place also featured its own musicworks ensembles for a christmas concert and the spring musicworks ensemble concert and three musicworks student recitals in the spring of 2015. Public information services - arts place provided arts information services on artists, arts events, and arts organizations in both the service area and well beyond. Web services were the primary tool for providing this information. The corporation also publishes an online newsletter. The website artsland. Org provides up-to-date information on arts events and services presented or hosted by arts place. The website also includes a number of aggregated content features from arts place's web database system. Community development - services to artists and organizations - this program provides technical assistance to artists and organizations providing arts programs and/or services. Arts place assisted several cultural organizations with strategic planning, board development, and cultural needs assessment. Indiana-based non-profit organizations from alexandria, bluffton, decatur, and shelbyville received the most significant benefit from these services.