ARTS COUNCIL FINDS NEW HOME DOWNTOWN

After years of moves from one ill-fitted space to the next, the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri may finally have found home sweet home.

The organization's staff and its Gallery 100 have moved into a former art gallery on the southeast corner of Spanish and Independence streets. Owned by Greg Williams, who also is the director of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, the building formerly housed the gallery of Cape Girardeau architect and artist John Boardman.

Boardman designed it as gallery space with track lighting, a security system and large windows visible to the street.

Arts Council executive director Greg Jones, who helped move equipment and furnishings Friday, is sold on the new downtown location.

"We're part of a community there. We have neighbors and peers," he said.

In the period since Jones assumed leadership of the organization last August, Gallery 100 has expanded its hours and has begun staying open on Saturdays and Sundays. Jones said that schedule will continue. Eventually the gallery will be open Friday and Saturday nights and will serve coffee.

"That's so people leaving Mollie's and the Bel Air Grill will come in," he said, referring to two popular nearby eateries.

The organization has signed a long-term lease on the space, which consists of about 3,000 square feet including storage. The building has enough room to exhibit the collection of art books donated by Arts Council founder Otto Dingeldein.

The Arts Council has been renting space at 6 N. Sprigg St. for the past two years. Owner August Birk, an artist himself, offered to help when the organization lost its lease in an office building at Mount Auburn Road and Kingshighway.

The Sprigg Street building is architecturally interesting but not designed for display of art, Jones said. The location also lacked parking. The new one has on-street parking and a city lot a block away.

Jones plans to create a second gallery space at the new building. The new Lorimier Gallery will exhibit only Missouri artists, and most of it will be dedicated to traditional folk arts and crafts such was quilting and weaving.

The galleries will host separate opening receptions, Jones said. "We want to make it something people want to come to. We want them to be as different as possible."

Jones intends for the Arts Council to begin focusing on unserved parts of the community, such as African-Americans, people over 50 and disabled people.

"There is a danger of the arts only serving one portion of a community," he says. "The arts are neutral territory. It's people celebrating life."

In May the organization will help sponsor a festival called Art for All, which will focus on helping people with disabilities create art.

Jones and assistant director Daniel North have expanded the gallery hours with help of four interns from the department of art at Southeast Missouri State University. But the interns -- Leslie Stucker, Christa Liening, Crystal Hale and Jen Cody -- are doing more than just manning the gallery. The sophomores and juniors are also writing grants and getting valuable work experience.

"This makes them really marketable," Jones said.

Southeast graduate Gary McCall is volunteering as the gallery's technical director, whose job is to prepare each show.

The new gallery will go into use almost immediately. An exhibit by high-school art teachers Judy Barks-Westrich and Robert Friedrich opens Friday. A reception for the artists will be held from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.