CELEBRATING CREATION AND COMMUNITY
Lawrence Journal-World Advertising Supplement
The Lawrence Arts Center turns 50
By Amber Fraley Ask Ann Evans, one of the founders of the Lawrence Arts Center, as well as its director for over thirty years, how it is the Arts Center has not only managed to survive, but thrive, and she comes back to one word again and again: community. Evans credits everyone from city leaders and local businesses to individuals giving their time, labor, and money to ensure Lawrence fostered the arts, and she is keenly aware how monumental an anniversary this is. “There are large cities that don’t have an arts center like ours. It’s shocking that it’s really happening.” Evans harkened back to the year 1974, when she and her husband had recently moved back to Lawrence after working on the East Coast. The City of Lawrence decided the best thing to do with the run-down Carnegie building at 9th and New Hampshire Streets was to let groups make proposals for a community center and take over care of the building. After the Lawrence Public Library moved out of the Carnegie, the historic building sat empty for years, having been vandalized, set on fire, and put up for sale with no success. The Lawrence Arts Commission won its proposal for an Arts Center, and hired Evans, who had worked in an arts center in Albany, N.Y., to run it. “I laugh and I tell people there’s no way any public event could’ve happened in that building now, it was in such bad shape,” Evan says. The first time she set foot in the building, she was “shocked” by the condition. Evans says only the front two rooms of
the Carnegie Building were usable when they moved in, while other rooms had holes in the floors and walls and needed extensive renovation. Water had to be bailed out of the basement. Instead of despairing, Evans, and a small group of dedicated individuals rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Renovations took thousands of hours and dollars. Longtime Arts Center theater director Ric Averill was there from the beginning. “As soon as Ann Evans was starting to make plans for what to do with the new Lawrence Arts Center, she reached out to us immediately and said, ‘Why don’t you come and be the resident children’s theatre?’” Evans sought out Averill’s theater expertise after City Parks and Rec director Fred DeVictor asked Evans if the new arts center would take over summer children’s theater. That’s how The Seem-ToBe Players came about. “Summer youth theater just took off,” recalls Evans. “That’s been an important program for the Lawrence Arts Center.” In fact, the Seem-To-Be Players traveled all over the state and the country putting on youth theater for kids during the school year, and teaching theater to kids during the summers. They put on shows every weekend and changed shows every month. In those early days, everyone using the Arts Center had to be willing to share the limited amount of space. Averill chuckles about having to settle for a brown box theater, as opposed to a black box theater, because Evans insisted the theater space also be suitable for public events.
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Soon after youth theater was up and running, the Arts Center added a few classes for preschoolers. They were so popular, eventually Linda Reimond, who had experience in early childhood education, was brought on board to start an arts-based preschool. “It was kind of crazy,” Reimond recalls. The preschool was in the basement of Arts Center, with adult-sized tables and folding chairs, where adult classes took place at night. Reimond bought many of the arts supplies herself. “Every day we had to put everything away—move it out of the way for the after-school classes and the evening classes—and every morning we had to bring it all out again. We built it up and built it up, but the beginning was really bare bones.” Despite the challenges, Reimond says the Arts Center board and directors have always been strong advocates for the preschool. “We had a lot of support. Otherwise, we couldn’t have done it.” When the Arts Center moved into its new building in 2002, Reimond asked for three things—a kid-level bathroom in every classroom, a sink low enough the children could wash their hands without standing on a stepstool, and an outdoor space for fresh air. Not only did she get her wishes, the Arts Center preschool program became so successful they were able to expand to offering kindergarten classes several years ago. Reimond directed the preschool program at the Arts Center for 35 years before retiring in 2021. But she couldn’t stay away, and now works in the pre-
school one day per week. “I missed the children.” Over the years, of course, the Arts Center has held countless arts exhibitions, hosted many artists in residence, added vital programs such as dance, and created iconic shows such as The Nutcracker: A Kansas Ballet. Since 2018, Margaret Morris has been the CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center. “I’ve been connected to the Arts Center in some form since I moved here from New York twenty some years ago,” says Morris, who was first hired as the Arts Center education director in 2002. Her background is in painting and art therapy, and much like Evans, she credits the entire Lawrence community with the Art Center’s success. Morris sees the Arts Center going strong for another fifty years. “The community created this place,” she says. “What a beautiful thing to have happen.” These individuals are credited with starting the Lawrence Arts Center: Arts Commission members Marilyn Brown, Jed Davis, Paul Gray, Janis Hutchinson, George Ryan, Jeannot Barnes Seymour, Helen Shumway, Jeanne Stump, and Alton Thomas. City Manager Buford W. Watson, Jr., and City Commissioners Jack Rose (Mayor), Barkley Clark, John Emick, Nancy S. Hambleton, and Fred Pence.
Cheers to 50 years of providing the joy of the arts to Lawrence and Douglas County