The Trusler Foundation has given $300,000 toward a new arts center in downtown Emporia, the Emporia Arts Council announced this morning.
The gift puts the arts council up to $1,730,000, or about two-thirds of the $2.6 million needed. The money will go toward building an arts center next door to the Granada Theatre. The site is currently occupied by Dayton’s Hobbies & Crafts and Tallgrass Art & Frame, both of which have plans to relocate if the campaign succeeds.
Dayton’s is owned by Susan and Sally Kelley while Tallgrass is owned by their sister Sara Kelley. None of the sisters have decided where their new business locations will be yet.
“We’re still exploring and thinking,” said Susan Kelley. She said a new arts center would be “a great addition to the downtown.”
The arts council went public with its fund-raising campaign last week, having already raised $1.43 million in the silent portion. Of that, $330,000 came through a challenge grant from the Oklahoma-based Mabee Foundation, the same non-profit that helped with the Granada’s restoration.
The Mabee money carries an April 1 deadline, by which time the rest of the funds must be raised.
The new arts council, at 18,000 square feet, would be about six times the size of the existing building at 618 Mechanic St. It would include gallery space, a full-service kitchen, larger classrooms, a clay studio, theater space and a scene shop.