STATE of the ARTS: Witter battles space woes, budget and identity crisis with some big new ideas

Americorps volunteer Jemira Payne at the Witter Art Gallery in Storm Lake with a massive woodcarving of an eagle in flight, part of the new February exhibit by artist Jeff Klatt of Storm Lake. / Pilot-Tribune photo by Dana Larsen [Click to enlarge]

In a world where schools are cutting art and people are expressing themselves via text message instead of with canvas and paint, Storm Lake's Witter Art Gallery is struggling to expand its identity.

"Our goal is to become a cultural center of the community, all under one roof - we just haven't been able to tap into it all yet," says Director Ron Stevenson.

The root problem: people don't seem to have time for the arts.

"As we reach out to see when we could offer things like adult art classes, people tell us not at night because they are too tired from working long hours, not on weekends because they are already booked solid," he says.

"It's too bad, really. Technology was supposed to make life easier, but instead it has made people's lives too rushed to stop and enjoy some of things that can enrich the way they live."

The Witter is currently working to tap into younger people. Many of the patrons and artists who have supported the facility for years are aging and dying off, Stevenson says.

The good news: In holding scholastic art shows and children's art classes, he and Witter volunteers are coming to believe that children have a natural, inborn love for art.

"When they come to us, they have this great joy for expressing themselves artistically. Parents don't have to make them come to an art class, they are thrilled to be there. Sadly, though, the only time many of them get to exercise this part of their nature is whatever time is allowed for art in school." In many places, that is being cut to make way for other budget and time priorities. "If we don't take the initiative to help them develop their interest, it gets lost as they get older," Stevenson says.

In fact, artists are becoming scarcer. "We can find dozens of photographers for any given month, because a photo can be done quick. But it's starting to get hard to find a painter because no one seems to have the time to give to that kind of art," Stevenson says.

GALLERY CHALLENGES

The Witter's worries are compounded by a severe lack of space for storage and classes, a shoestring budget that requires them to plead for city funding each year, and the fact that a good portion of the community's residents don't even know a gallery exists.

"If we had our own location on main street, people would walk in. But where we are, we are out of sight and we become sort of an afterthought in the library building," he says.

The city has funded the gallery to the tune of $15,000 annually in recent years. Membership fees, fundraisers and donations bring in the rest of the $40,000 budget. After operating costs, that doesn't allow much to buy supplies for classes, or attract high-profile shows.

"We've never been able to connect with donors who could take advantage of tax benefits with donations to the gallery - we just don't know how to approach it," Stevenson says.

The facility will conduct membership efforts in February and May to try to bring numbers up.

There is little possibility of a new site - neither the library or the gallery have funds available to obtain a new facility on their own.

Still, the gallery itself is an excellect space for art display, and the artists who come to showcase their work usually love it, Stevenson said.

"It always comes down to money - you'd like to do more than you can do with what you have," he says. "In an ideal world, you would like to have a permanent display gallery with important pieces up all the time, areas for rotating displays with two or three artists at any one time instead of just one a month, places for different classes for all ages and skill levels. Unfortunately, people didn't view art galleries with that kind of flexibility when this facility was being laid out years ago."

This week, a group of public relations students from Buena Vista University volunteered to help raise the Witter's image. They will brainstorm new ideas and come up with a potential image campaing package. The gallery has also set up a Facebook page in hopes of better connecting with the public.

Read more of this story in the February 6 Pilot Tribune.