Doors, Floors, Moving Up
The Ice House is changing, transforming and growing every day. Doors, floors and electrical upgrades have been the focus the past few weeks.
First, in the education wing we are renovating the large classroom to become a
lecture/gallery hall which will be called the "Pair-O-Doc's Room." The pair of
docs in question are Bill Lands and Norberta Schoene, thanks to their kind contribution
we can match it with money from the Cultural Facilities Grant.
So far we have leveled the floor using a space age material installed by Cowles & Son Construction Co. The room has been painted by Gerry Smith and by the end of April the carpet should be installed by Clarks. After that we will put in new lighting and detail painting to finish the project.
The more we use the building, the better we understand how traffic should flow through the Ice House. There have been many times that the congestion of 200-300 people in the building cause claustrophobic bottlenecks.
Armed with that understanding, the building committee with the assistance of
Andy Singletary, our architect, developed a plan. That plan included four new
doors and a new main entrance on the Mercer St. (east) side of the building.
Two of the doors are double 6' birch doors. One replaced the single door that connects
MAC gallery with the theater/event room
, the other is at the south end of the hall
across from the office. The latter worked perfectly as a back stage entrance and will
be great later this month for Uniquely WV.
The big news is the former loading dock is now the main entrance. The gray
doors were replaced with beautiful new glass doors (see photo on first page) and
a new glass door and side light open from the dock into the Co-op Gallery. 
Within
months this new entrance will be finished, and not only will it be beautiful, it will
comply to all federal American Disabilities Act Requirements. Thanks to Gordon
Macleod for his help sanding the paint in the new lobby -- exposing the beautiful
interior bricks. Ask me how you can help make this new lobby a reality.
Jim Fredo of Bear Ridge Crafters has been an important addition to our list of resources. Jim is quite talented and a joy to work with. For the past few months he has been doing lots of projects around the Ice House. All doors on the first floor have all the finish hardware and close properly to aid the zoned heating we have in place.
He has built a new closet for the Co-op Gallery and general utility closet in the new lobby. Jim's skills include electrical work so he has been up grading the lighting and electric infrastructure on the 3rd floor.
Did I say 3rd floor? Yes, we are moving on up. Mountain View Builders has just completed the new home for Homeopathy Works' new warehouse. As you read this the move is taking place which will leave the old warehouse on the 2nd floor empty and ready to develop as the new theater.
The Second Floor: Speaking of new space on the 2nd floor, MAC is proud to announce that we will be partnering with the Morgan County Library to present a Smithsonian Institution exhibition in Nov. and Dec. of this year. That exhibition will be displayed in a new gallery/exhibit hall on the 2nd floor. Watch for a display of floorplans and designs for the development of the 2nd floor and the beginning of Phase II Ice House Renovations, in the new lobby soon.
'Twas Grant Time:
January and February was grant time. This year we applied for program support to
three different agencies. First came the Pennsylvania Professional Arts on Tour
(PenPAT) to bring in "Road to the Isles" for a summer concert. This exciting
presentation of Scottish and Irish folk music and dance will be a great addition
to our summer concert series. That request, like most programming funds, is a
50/50 match, meaning the granting organization will only give 1/2 of the artists'
fee. We are asking the WV Commission on the Arts (WVCA) for the other 1/2.
Next we worked with our partner, the Morgan County Boys & Girls Club, on a grant
from the Jane P. Snyder fund. Martha Harrison, Jeanne Mozier and I wrote a
request for $3,600 for scholarships for the Ice House Youth Theater Project.
We received support from them for the last 2 years. Those funds have allowed
dozens of Morgan County students to participate in this exciting MAC program.
Thank you Jane P. Synder Fund!
Last but not least we tackled the WVCA grant. MAC President, Jenny Banner
Wheeler, once again took, a strong leadership position spearheading this daunting
task. Board Members Bennet Lentzner, Sandra Earls, and Larry Springer, and Gallery
Coordinator Lynn Lavin, lent their time, energy and talent to make all these
programs possible. Two major board meetings were dedicated to selecting and
approving the artists that will be "Getting Art Out There" for MAC over the next
year.
The WVCA grant has traditionally been our primary grant funder. This year we
applied for 5 individual projects and three Arts in Education (AiE) projects. These
project include, 8 summer concerts in the park, 3 Ice House concert/events,
staff support for Lynn Lavin, our Gallery Coordinator (50% of her salary), artist
fees for 7 curators for gallery shows, and 2 performances of Greenbrier Valley
Theater's production of "Always, Patsy Cline." Our AiE programs include week
long visits from Ileen Evans, Colleen Anderson and Kathry Stedham doing writing
workshops in the 4th, 7th and 10th grades. We also requested funds for a children's
author, Carolyn Reeder, whose books will be used in the county wide "share reading
program."
It took a lot of meetings, phone calls, emails, faxes, negotiation, coordination
and cooperation to get this proposal together, thanks to all of you who gave your
time and energy to make it happen.
WVCA Cultural Facilities & the ARC:
Last fall we wrote a huge grant request to the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).
That request included grants from the WVCA Cultural Facilities Fund, the Benedum
Foundation and the ARC which would total $792,000. In October of last year, we
received one piece of the puzzle when Governor Wise came to town to give us a
check for $155,000.
There is a catch in the works because that $155,000 has to be matched. We hoped
the ARC grant would do that, but in January we learned we did not get those funds ~ bummer.
We have a meeting with the President of the Benedum Foundation the first of
April and we hope that they will match the money the Governor gave us last year
from the Cultural Facilities Fund. Till then we are moving forward. Developing
space for the cool things creative people in our community want to do.
The next issue of "From the Ice House Director's Desk," will tell you how you
can get involved by donating your talent, labor, supplies or other stuff to the Morgan
Arts Council ~~ J.W. Rone, Ice House Director