Lawrence.com

After a decade of road blocks, changed plans and hope, staff and residents broke ground Sunday for the new Lawrence Arts Center building in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street.

Arts supporters celebrated the turning of the dirt with music, dance performances and arts and crafts. Director Ann Evans said she expects construction of the $7.35 million building to begin within a month.

Board members and other leaders of the project addressed the crowd and thanked as many of those involved with the center in its 25 year history as they could remember.

"This facility is not for donors, it is not for committee members," Deanell Tacha, steering committee chair, said. "Over the decade I have done this, many people have been involved."

Tacha thanked City Manager Mike Wildgen who had baseball caps made for the center's leaders that read "Art Saves Cities."

"Less than two years from now, we will be back here in a new building," Evans said.

Mayor Jim Henry, who also helped break ground, said the new downtown building "will be gorgeous."

The Lawrence Arts Center opened in 1975 in the Carnegie building at 200 W. Ninth St. By 1988, the city had already outgrown the space and plans began to add on at that site. Throughout the years, plans were revisited and revised, leading to the idea of a new building on New Hampshire Street.

With less than $500,000 left to raise for the building, Evans said the city approval of an additional $150,000 for furnishings at Tuesday's city commission meeting is the last major hurdle before construction can begin.

In an effort to spur the community to invest in the building, Lawrence artist and Kansas University professor Jerry Lubensky is donating the proceeds from more than 20 of his paintings to the center.

"Anything above the minimum price in the silent auction goes to the arts center," he said at his exhibit reception Saturday at Fields Gallery, 712 Mass. "I looked in the paper and was aware they are looking for funds. I thought this would be a nice thing and I've been part of the community for over 31 years. This is a challenge to the Lawrence arts community. We're called the 'City of the Arts,' aren't we? It's important to develop business relationships between commerce, the artists and the community. This is an attempt to begin a process of this kind."

Wildgen, in his brief address of the crowd at the groundbreaking, echoed Lubensky's challenge.

"My words are 'Don't leave without a pledge card,'" he said.