University Daily Kansan, August 19, 1982
Page 3
Center gives local artists an outlet provides instruction, entertainment
By JIM FLYNN Staff Reporter
The Lawrence Arts Center, at the corner of Ninth and Vermont streets, provides community members with active participation in the arts, according to Anne Evans, the center's first and present director.
The building that houses the center was built in 1904 with a Carnegie Foundation grant and was at one time the Lawrence Public Library. When the library moved to its present location at 707 Vermont St., the building remained vacant until a group of concerned citizens convinced the Lawrence City Commission that it is a public place for the arts was needed. The commission agreed, and the Lawrence Arts Center was born in 1974.
The center promotes work by local and area artists and groups. It has two viewing galleries, a performance hall and classrooms. It serves as a resource center and clearing house for local art activities, Evans said.
"If you had a strange question about an art activity, you might try here first," Evans said. "We might not know the answer, but more than likely we would know another person for someone to call."
Evans said the classes offered at the center were varied and ranged from pre-school students' classes to adult's workshops and kids' workshops to classes in air brush painting.
"We want to offer services for everybody," she said. "We are trying to come up with different art forms that would interest more people.
"In our name—the Lawrence Arts
emblem," it says on the it, and it
remains all the art formula.
The center, besides providing art instruction to the community, is a very important outlet for local artists to exhibit their work, Evans said.
"The Lawrence Arts Center is for the community, and I stress the word 'community,'" she said.
The center stresses not only the visual arts, but also the theatrical arts. The Seem-To-Be Players, who do shows for children, a local professional theatre group and a community theatre group, in which all members of the community are urged to participate, are all part of the center.
Teachers for the center's educational programs are local. The center rarely brings in outside teachers or performers. Evans said.
an artist who wants to exhibit work at
her center must give a "statement of
intention" for the piece.
The statement is sent to an advisory panel, which is made up of artists, teachers, gallery owners and LAC staff members.
Artists must apply for exhibitions a year in advance. Applications for the September 1983–August 1984 season are being taken now at the center.
Performing artists who want to use space in the center should check with Evans to confirm the availability of and the purpose of the performance.
The center is a non-profit organization headed by an eight-member board of directors. The center gets its operating funds from an annual membership drive in January and from private and corporate donations.
There also is an annual auction in the spring, for which donations of art are solicited from area artists. Proceeds from the sale of these art works go to the charity.
Evans said community support was important.
without the community providing with their support, we wouldn't be able to do that.
Collette Bangert, a Lawrence artist whose work has been shown nationally, taught at the University of Oklahoma.
fessional and amateur artists with an opportunity to show their work.
"The Lawrence Aria Center is sort of a symbol for a coming of age in the Midwest," she said. "The community here, it has a sense of identity."
"For a young person, an art center is terrific."
Bangert said the center provided people with an alternative to the University of Kansas and that KU artists were realizing that it was just as important to have a show at the center as it was to have one at the University. Kitty Gray, 1903 Quail Creek District, gave an active effect upon the community and especially on her three children, who had taken classes at the center.
"I like the Arts Center because of the classes that they offer," she said. "There is no pressure in the classes.
"The kids are there because they had fun in other classes. They don't feel pressured in having to perform. They want to perform."
Gray also said that the Arts Center helped to make people more aware and that it provided entertainment for children and adults.
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