By Evan Brandt
ebrandt@pottsmerc.com

POTTSTOWN — U.S. Sen. Robert Casey has added his support to a proposal to establish a grant-funded community art center downtown.

Early last month, the Pottstown School Board gave Superintendent Reed Lindley permission to pursue the grant and about two weeks later, Casey added his support with a letter.

The district made the grant application in conjunction with the Pottstown Arts and Cultural Alliance seeking funding from ArtPlace America for the project, which it titled “ArtFUSION 19464.”

Also partnering in the application are the borough, Montgomery County Community College and the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation, according to Casey’s Nov. 18 letter.

The funding would be used “to expand the art and cultural resources it provides to have a greater economic impact on this low-income community that has seen substantial disinvestment,” Casey wrote.

The art center, Casey wrote, “will include classrooms, studios, retail space, galleries, a commercial culinary kitchen and a fabrication lab, along with other sustainable building techniques to encourage education in arts and culture among students K-12.”

The center may become the best viable option for arts education in constricting budget conditions.

Last month, Lindley told the school board that “recognizing that there will be administrative, support and teacher personnel reductions in the upcoming budget, I’m asking for your support to continue exploration of ideas and funds.”

His presentation listed “non-mandated” programs that, while “important to student success” could be all that’s left to cut in the budget.

The list included: “pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, art, music, physical education, computer science, family consumer science, foreign language, co-curricular activities.”

This choice may be all that’s left for the board despite studies that show that “students who reported spending no time in school-sponsored activities were 57 percent more likely to have dropped out before their senior year,” Lindley said.

As an alternative to simply doing without, Lindley explained he is trying to find ways to provide that programing outside of the traditional school budget framework.

And one way might be to partner with the borough, local arts organizations and businesses to create a community art center which might provide some of those experiences the school district may soon no longer be able to afford.

It is just one of many partnerships that Lindley is pursuing on behalf of the district, he said.

Others include a partnership with the borough to use building construction classes at the high school to renovate homes taken for non-payment of taxes or bills. The first of those projects is now under way on Second Street.

Another partnership is the search for a partner to help with the refurbishment of the tennis courts at Pottstown High School.

He said he envisions the center as being a place where school district students can, in addition to their teachers, work beside college art students and professional artists.

According to a draft business plan for the effort, each partner would have a different piece of the pie:

• The Gallery School of Pottstown would offer arts enrichment classes, days, evenings, weekends, holidays, summer, etc.

• Gallery on High would maintain the “community” gallery space and lease small gallery space to artists. • Pottstown School District would teach visual arts from one facility in the historical downtown. PSD teachers would teach visual, culinary, creative writing, penmanship and foreign language.

Students from carpentry classes could work with designers and architects in helping to develop space and also to do some of the labor.

• Montgomery County Community College would utilize glass and pottery studios for credited/non-credited arts classes.

• Mosaics Community Land Trust would develop “green” roof gardens which could be used to grow food for the culinary arts program.

In addition to these facilities, the center could house a retail shop to house local arts and crafts and which could be run by the high school’s DECA club.

It could also house a smaller private gallery to rent to artists and a small movie theater with 40 to 50 seats and a small stage.

A “snack shack” could be run by the high school’s culinary arts program

The center, Casey wrote, “will provide a new, cultural hub in Pottstown that will build a creative workforce prepared for higher education that also encourages economic development in this under-served community.