Changes coming to Brewery Art Center thanks to substantial grant, community donations
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Fri, 06/25/2021 - 9:00am
A substantial grant given to the Brewery Arts Center by the state is allowing the local non-profit to undertake some much needed repairs and maintenance to the historic buildings on their campus.
According to Mikey Wiencek, Director of Operations for the Brewery Arts Center, the upgrades and repairs will be made with use of a $220,000 grant provided by the state for preservation of historic buildings.
The buildings that make up the modern day arts center include the old Tahoe Brewery and the old St. Teresa’s Catholic Church, both of which were built in the late 1800s.
The projects have been funded with the assistance of the Commission for Cultural Centers and Historic Preservation, which include a new roof, new flooring in the church building, new eco-friendly lighting across both buildings, and more.
“(The grants) are all for upgrades to our historic facility to help us lower our maintenance costs, our utility costs, and to help us preserve these beautiful old buildings that have so much character and so much history, and to keep them to crumbling or burning down,” said Wiencek. “The grant is going to transform so much for us here.”
Some upgrades are already underway. A new coat of paint has been applied to the exterior doors and window frames of the church building, and Wiencek is currently gearing up for new flooring to go in very soon.
In addition to lowering utility and maintenance costs, doing these upgrades will also allow the facility to become more eco-friendly overall.
“Taking care of our community and our environment is very important to us,” said Wiencek.
Community members directly affect the Brewery Arts Center with their generous donations. Wiencek himself was able to become a full-time paid staff member due to a generous $100,000 donation by an anonymous donor a year ago, who then came back a few months later and donated another $60,000 to fund the church building’s new roof.
Before that donation, Wiencek was the President of the Board for the BAC, and stated that receiving that community donation not only transformed his life but also transformed the arts center because he was able to dedicate himself to its repairs and upkeep once he was granted a full-time position.
It was also thanks to that generous donation that allowed the BAC to go after an Environmental Preservation Grant which allowed them to dedicate those funds to other necessary upgrades around the campus.
In total, every part of the two-building campus will be receiving an upgrade in some fashion, whether it’s a new roof, new plumbing, new flooring, new lighting, or a combination of the above, updating some aspects that haven’t seen an upgrade since the 1980s.
To keep up to date with the goings on of the Brewery Art Center, especially as new classes, concerts, shows and more come about as the facility reopens after COVID-19, please visit https://breweryarts.org/
