After years of fundraising, unexpected construction surprises and rolling closures, renovation at the Gunnison Arts Center (GAC) will soon come to an end in early 2025.
The arts center launched a $3.8 million capital campaign called “Framing Our Future” in 2019, the organization’s first major fundraising push in more than two decades. While the renovation project has stayed mostly on schedule, the project came in over budget. The GAC board and staff must fill in the gaps by the end of January.
Crews are now teasing out the last bugs in the theater’s sound and lighting systems and putting finishing touches on renovation work that’s been done around the building. The arts center will be fully open five days a week, after more than a year of fluctuating hours adapted around the noisy construction schedule.
“The community is recognizing that we're open and is excited to get into the spaces,” said arts center board treasurer Erik Niemeyer.
While most of the work is now complete, the renovation team ran into a number of obstacles during construction — illustrating just how challenging it is to bring a historic, 142-year-old building up to modern standards, Niemeyer said. He switched on the light in the basement, and pointed to areas where the foundation had buckled and was later reinforced with steel beams.
When construction crews tore up the main floor of the arts center in 2023 and saw its deteriorating condition, they knew it would set them back, said Executive Director Alysa VandenHeuvel. This discovery, along with inflated supply costs from the pandemic and under-budgeting for the theater’s audio and visual equipment, means the arts center is now facing a $200,000 shortfall. The board must pay its final invoices next month.
To fill the financial gap, the arts center created an ad hoc committee that has been fundraising within the community. Since the discovery of the foundation’s condition, the committee has raised almost $50,000 in the last year. Their work will continue through the new year on the heels of an arts center membership drive. The board, alongside GAC staff, also sought grants from entities like the State Historic Preservation Fund and the Gates Family Foundation. It is also considering loans.
“[We have] a good team,” Niemeyer said. “We just have to see if we can deliver in the timeline that we need to pay the final invoice.”
Construction crews wrapped up the fourth and final phase of renovations this year with the reopening of the main gallery and the theater. This fall, the arts center also welcomed VandenHeuvel, marking the fourth leadership change in two years. VandenHeuvel worked at the GAC for eight years up until 2020.
Due to its age, the building was slowly buckling under its own weight, unbeknownst to the community members, artists and staff that filtered in and out of the building each day. Under the floor boards, crews found rotting structural joints and a crumbling foundation. The eastern wall, which helps support the second floor, was also starting to bulge.
The building has since been stabilized, and crews found a way to repurpose the old historical timber. Some of the original wood flooring and siding were used as accent pieces, while the sliding door between the theater and the main gallery were made from salvaged support beams. The arts center also kept a door from Frederick Zugelder’s original, 1882 design. Zugelder was a local master stonemason.
Down the hall, the interior walls of the renovated theater, which has been moved to the north side of the building, are now a deep navy blue. The color warranted the renaming of the space: the Blue Box Theater. The former theater had only basic lighting and sound capabilities, as opposed to the renovated space, which has a new projector and screen, and advanced technology for future productions. More than five miles of wiring run through the renovated section of the building.
But the audio-visual and sound equipment for the theater was more expensive than the board budgeted for, Niemeyer said. After buildout, the cost was well over $500,000. GAC staff are still designing a rod and curtain system that will be movable so the space can be used for concerts and larger events.
While the Blue Box has since reopened, the first formal theater production it will host is the annual Sonnofagunn play at the end of February. In the new year, the arts center will also host films once a month, along with a “Moonlight” concert series during the off season, January through May. This will be paired with its usual Sundays@6 production during the summer months.
(Bella Biondini can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or bella@gunnisontimes.com.)
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