People who have wanted to try making pottery on a wheel, splash paint on a canvas for modern art or use watercolors to paint a nature scene will soon have a home. The Stark Museum of Art is adding a new wing to the museum to turn into an education center for art classes. “We’re moving into a new era of supporting our education mission,” said Ellen Welker, communications director for the Stark Foundation. In recent years the museum has offered art activities and classes mostly geared toward children. Welker said senior citizens and adults have requested classes. In addition, high school and college students have been interested in learning art at the museum. “So we decided we needed classrooms,” she said.
The addition will not affect the floor plans of the main museum. The classroom section will be a place where artists, new and experienced, may get dirty and messy. Room will also be available for exhibits of work by the students. “The possibilities are endless for what can happen,” Welker said.
The addition will be on the northeast side of the current museum building on Green Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets. Construction is set to begin in October and is estimated to last 18 months. Last week, the Orange City Council approved a request from the Stark Foundation to temporarily close Sixth Street from Green Avenue to Elm Street during the construction period. The heavy construction equipment will be kept on a cleared area on the east side of Sixth Street at the former First Baptist Church campus.
The Stark Foundation bought the old church campus on Green Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets after the church moved. All buildings except the century-old domed church have been demolished. Welker said that building will be used for things like poetry readings, a violin recital or student performances. The former sanctuary has room for a few hundred people in the audience but is not as large as the Lutcher Theater.
The addition of the classroom wing at the museum and the former church building will tie the Stark Cultural Venues into a downtown campus similar to a college. Shangri La Gardens and Nature Center is the only Stark venue not in downtown. A coffee shop could be added to the Stark campus in the future, Welker said.
The classrooms at the museum will become a place to have fun, learn something and meet new friends, she said. “Hopefully people will start realizing it’s their museum.”
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
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