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FSCC breaks ground on Fine Arts Center
Fort Scott, Kan. -- About 200 people turned out on Friday afternoon to help celebrate the groundbreaking for the much-anticipated Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Center at Fort Scott Community College.
FSCC officials, city and state officials, local business leaders, and several other dignitaries assembled in the FSCC cafeteria for a special luncheon, and to view a virtual tour of the proposed facility through a computer presentation designed by FSCC information technology staff.
FSCC President Clayton Tatro said the new center, which will contain several theatre, music, speech, and other performing arts classrooms and performance space, as well as a 600-seat auditorium with scene shop, will make a tremendous impact in the community.
"What a great day for Fort Scott," Tatro said. "To see that we will be having a home for these programs, and a place they can call home, it's fabulous. This is a huge opportunity. It will make not only an economic, but a social and cultural impact."
Tatro also thanked several individuals and local groups for their leadership and involvement in making the fine arts center project a reality.
To date, the FSCC Endowment Association has collected a little more than $6 million in pledges and other cash donations toward the $7.5 million overall cost of the center. Tatro said officials plan to continue efforts to raise the remaining funds, even through the building's construction phase, which begins later this month.
Last month, a city-approved issue of $7.6 million in industrial revenue bonds will allow construction of the facility to begin before all pledges are collected, many of which may take five to 10 years to pay out, FSCC officials said.
Construction on the facility is expected to be completed in April 2009, officials said.
Tatro said the facility should be ready to host FSCC graduation ceremonies that year.
"What a time it will be, to watch (FSCC) graduation in the spring of 2009 in the new auditorium," Tatro said.
FSCC worked with an Arkansas-based architectural firm on requirements for the building and to determine costs of the facility's construction. A Columbus, Kan.-based construction company will oversee construction of the building.
Local philanthropist Danny Ellis also spoke to the crowd, thanking those who contributed to the design and creation of the center that will bear he and his wife's names. In 2006, the Ellis' donated $1 million to construction of the facility and purchased the naming rights for the center.
Ellis agreed that the center will be an important addition to the community.
"We're confident it will change many lives for many years to come," Ellis said. "We want to thank each one of you for being here today to share this with us."
Ellis and his wife, Willa, have made several other contributions to the community over the years.
Attendees were also able to view a virtual tour of the 33,000-square foot fine arts center, which will also contain the 3,000-square-foot Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity, gallery space, art studios, classrooms, music rehearsal space, indoor and outdoor exhibition space, an atrium, three music classrooms, three fine arts classrooms, one ceramics studio, one painting studio, and a 19,000-square-foot performing arts hall.
The facility will also contain the 12,000-square-foot Kathy Ellis Academic Hall, named after the Ellis' late daughter who died in 1997, as well as several dressing rooms, offices and other community meeting rooms.
The center will also host a variety of historical and cultural events in the area.
The Friday event concluded with an official groundbreaking ceremony for the new center, which will be located just east of the FSCC Administration Building on the college's main campus, overlooking the south side of the lake and the Fort Lincoln School walking trail at the campus' northeast corner.
About 20 people who contributed to the fine arts center project served as groundbreakers for the event, digging into the ground on the center's construction site with ceremonial shovels.
Fort Scott Mayor Dick Hedges, who led the group in the groundbreaking ceremony, said the money was not available to fund a new fine arts center several years ago when the community had expressed interest in such a facility.
Times have changed, however, as the new center is just 18 months away from coming to fruition.
"There wasn't enough money to build a fine arts center 30 years ago, so we've been making do for three decades," Hedges said. "Now it's time to go."