Wassenberg prepares for new facility

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Now that The Van Wert County Foundation has an agreement to purchase the former Van Wert Armory building, it appears that Wassenberg Art Center needs to prepare for a new home.

It’s a move that both Wassenberg Executive Director Hope Wallace and the Foundation’s Board of Trustees have been contemplating for some time.

Foundation Executive Secretary Larry Wendel noted that the Foundation board has been concerned about what to do with the art center for several months.

“Over the last year, we have been taking a hard look at doing something with the Wassenberg,” Wendel said, adding that the Foundation looked first at renovating the current center, which is the former home of Charles and Vera Wassenberg, who gifted the Victorian-era house to the Foundation in 1954.

Not only would the renovation be expensive, Wendel said, but would not net the art center any additional space — which is Wassenberg’s primary need.

Wallace noted that, with membership up 30 percent and class offerings growing from one a week to four or five, as well as increased community involvement and an increase in the number and variety of summer art camps, something had to be done to find more space.

After deciding that space wasn’t going to be found at the current site, the Foundation board then began looking at other sites for the art center. After touring several buildings, board members settled on the armory building.

“That boiled down to our first choice,” Wendel said.

However, it looked like the board’s first choice would be a pile of rubble in a couple of weeks with the decision by owner Don Lippi to honor his commitment to sell the property to Jim Brown of Brown Construction, a Kentucky-based development firm that wanted to build a new Family Dollar store on the site.

After first trying to block demolition by adding the property to the Downtown Revitalization District — a move Van Wert City Council would likely not have approved — the Foundation took the more positive route of negotiating an agreement with both Lippi and Brown to purchase the building.

With those roadblocks cleared, the Foundation and Wallace are looking forward to moving ahead with renovation of the building as the new site for Wassenberg Art Center.

Wallace said the site has lots of advantages over the current site, with size chief among those. The fact that the building is all on one story also has advantages over the current site, she added.

The Wassenberg executive director said the new site should provide several advantages to the art center. Those include space for artist and non-artist programming; the possibility of creating an artist-in-residence program; more interaction with downtown events and activities, such as the Summer Music Series in Fountain Park, the Peony Festival and other events; increasing a focus on regional and pertinent art; and maintaining and growing school invitational exhibits.

The new site will provide more space for Wassenberg’s various exhibits, since it is cohesive with gallery and art program functions. It also would provide natural light for the best display of artwork, something the current gallery doesn’t have, since there are no windows in that area, an addition to the existing Wassenberg home.

Wallace said the armory would also provide space and infrastructure for a ceramic and hot glass facility and is currently handicap-accessible, including multi-stall restroom facilities.

Parking, which is currently a problem at the current land-locked art center, would be much improved, with city parking lots on two sides of the building, and a small parking area to the south of the armory.

In addition to renovating the building, the Foundation and Wallace plan to create gardens around the building, with the addition of sculptures, fountains and other esthetic additions.

No timetable has been set for the renovation work, although Wallace and Wendel both say they would like to move forward as quickly as possible to get the project moving.

Like the Family Dollar project, Wallace said she feels the Wassenberg project will impact economic development. Not only will the new art center have the potential for adding 1-2 new jobs, but Wallace said small communities with successful economic development programs almost without exception have flourishing cultural programs, including the fine arts, as well as music and theatre.

Moving Wassenberg into a larger and more appropriate facility would allow it to develop into a fitting partner for the Niswonger Performing Arts Center and Van Wert Civic Theatre, she concluded.