Art center seeks to grow - #lakewoodnews

At 40, people often celebrate being "over the hill," but for the Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities this birthday is the beginning.

"It's going to be great," said Arvada Mayor Marc Williams of the Arvada Center's official transition to a nonprofit arts education entity from a city department. "It's going to give the ability for the center to grow philanthropically at a level higher than it could as a city department."

This transition --; taking place on July 1 and the center's 40 anniversary --; is a major change for the entity as a business, but not as a venue. The center will now be run as a private nonprofit organization, allowing for the entity to expand philanthropic giving, programming and its supporter base.

The move allows "the Arvada Center to remain viable in the long-term," said Ken Fellman, a founding board member of the nonprofit. "A nonprofit form will expose us to new audiences, supporters and ultimately help us continue to provide value."

Since its inception in 1976, the Arvada Center has been a department of the City of Arvada. Over the past 40 years, the city's financial contribution --; both in-kind and financial donations --; to the center has grown to about $4 million a year. In the early 1990s, Fellman said, that contribution reached a high point, one that needed to be stabilized. That's when the councils of the time, and several that followed, decided to research alternative methods of funding.

"We've been seriously moving in this direction for the last four to five years," Fellman said of the switch. "We're working to make it (the center) better in every way that entails."

Over the next five years, the center will operate as the nonprofit, taking over all programming, operations and fiscal responsibility. The City of Arvada will continue to run the building and grounds maintenance.

The switch coincides with the entity's 40th anniversary of a regional arts and entertainment venue, a moment Executive Director, Philip Sneed said, is both by design and providence.

"It's right timing," he said. "Most or all of us here are excited about this transition and the future. There are already a lot of exciting new possibilities that exist in the private sector that just don't in the public sector."

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