4.0. SR 04-30-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Information on possible partnership with ,~,rts Alliance I have been meeting for several months with the Operation ER group regarding community center space in Elk River, including the possible YMCA, our new proposed "Family O~nt~,", and other possible public construction projects in the Elk River area. In the course of those meetings, there have been opportunities for each group to present in general ways their "needs" or desires. The context of that presentation has been to look for commonalities of purpose or ways in which two or more entities could be served by the same space. In a nutshell, the process has been one of trying to see if there were some partnerships that could be forged. In the course of these proceedings I have been able to speak about what our facilities grant committee envisioned and proposed with our fall, 2000 facilities grant submission. The facility will clearly serve pre- school children and their families (ECFE, ECSE and Head start programs are all planned to be in the facility), but the building will also significantly serve adults, with classroom spaces for Adult Basic Education programs, with a technology center making daytime computer classes a reality, and with other spaces that adults will have access to whether it be a public meeting or an educational class. The 2001 Arts Alliance (the people that brought us Art, soup) represent a unified voice for the many different art disciplines 'in the Elk River area. In the past these many voices have sometimes spoken in different tongues--advocating a specific art program or art space need to the exclusion of others. The Arts Alliance has endeavored to bring all those groups together in a unified way a~nd to look at the bigger arts picture, in hopefully a unified way. Their leadership includes Toni Darkenwald, Harvey Schroeder, and Sandy Tracy. Over the past month or so I have had several conversations with one or more of these three people regarding the proposed Family Center; what it will include; who it will serve; what our general timeline might be; what we would need in a site; how we would operate the site, etc. I have also listened to what the Arts '~lliance would like to do. They are interested in some specific, but not unreasonable classroom spaces in ,~ich to offer classes--painting, clay, dance, etc. I feel that their purposes and those of Community Education (lifelong learning for all ages) are very compatible, and that we should seriously consider the Arts Alliance as a potential partner in our proposed Family Center. In fact, I'm excited about the possibilities of including their needs in such a facility, and encouraged by the grant possibilities it could open to us. Generally speaking, the Arts Alliance would need to fund-raise the dollars needed to construct the specific dedicated spaces they seek, as well as bear the responsibility for the operational costs of those spaces once they are constructed. We would incorporate their needs into the needs of all the other partners which have been involved in the project all along. All of us would be working together with the architectural planning process, as well as the public funding (getting school board authori~.ation for levy for lease, or inclusion on the next bond issue) or site acquisition processes. My sense is that our proposed facility will meet more public needs with the arts community a part of it than not a part of it. We may be approaching the City of Elk River or Sherburne county for land for the facility, and I believe if we appear to be more than only( or primarily) a school district entity as we seek the donation of land, we will be better off. I have invited the leadership of the Arts Alliance to the Monday, April 16 Advisory Council meeting to discuss with the council the concept of the partnership, and to provide more information about what the Alliance desires in the way of space. On the reverse of this page is a very preliminary listing of space needs Arts Alliance has developed. The sheet has been fine-tuned and amended since I received it last week, but I hope it helps you get a picture of things before Monday night's meeting. Feel free to call me should you have questions or concerns prior to Monday's meeting. 241-3522 (work), 441-5331 (home).