The HeART of the Matter

Story by Marisa Willis // Photos by Michael Leese

Twelve years ago, representatives and board members from the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham Public Library and Mount Baker Theatre sat in the corner of a dimly lit Pepper Sisters restaurant to discuss the future of art and culture in Bellingham. As the half dozen men and women dined on southwest-style burritos and enchiladas, they hashed out the best way to develop a city center focused on the arts.

Two hours and countless rounds of tortilla chips later, those few progressive thinkers planted the seed for the Bellingham Arts District.

Ken Culver, a tall, distinguished man with graying hair and mustache, was one of the original visionaries present at the downtown restaurant that night, and continues to be personally invested in the project.

Culver says the group dreamed of a place in town where the young and the old, the artist and the art enthusiast, the creative and the creative at heart could meet and mingle to discuss, appreciate and contemplate the arts.

Without an abundance of culturally rich activities, a city can become devoid of creative thought and progress, and stops living up to its full, sophisticated potential, Culver says.

For Culver, the Arts District would include beautifully paved sidewalks lined with vegetation and pedestrian-friendly streets to promote both walking and driving. Music from outdoor concerts would travel through alleyways and accompany chatter of those emerging from theater shows and performances. Culver says the district is not about creating new venues, but giving the old spaces a rebirth by connecting them together.

"The arts bring a dimension to this town that any town would die to have," Culver says. "We have the theater, a world-class museum and a great library system. They are all sitting within two blocks of each other, so why don't we package this up into a physical, geographic location and call it the Arts District?"

This downtown revival is a collaboration between the City of Bellingham and Campaign for the Arts. Places such as the Whatcom Museum, Mount Baker Theatre, Pickford Cinema, Allied Arts and the American Museum of Radio and Electricity will be linked through the Arts District.

Culver says the district was only dreams and conjecture before city funding arrived-when they were finally able to put their plan into action.

The Bellingham-Whatcom Public Facilities District was created through state legislation in 2002 to provide approximately $17 million to the Arts District project over 25 years, but this was still not enough to make the district come to life. In response, Culver created Campaign for the Arts in 2006 and began his uphill battle toward raising $8.6 million in private donations. To date, the campaign has raised more than half its goal through private donors.

Project manager Tara Sundin says this money allowed the city to revamp historical sites in downtown Bellingham and to begin formulating a plan for the Arts District. The district is one of the largest multi-faceted fundraising efforts the city has witnessed.

The Whatcom Museum's new Lightcatcher building, named for its 34-foot-tall curved glass wall that reflects or "catches" light, is now the final piece to the Arts District puzzle. Its dusty construction site on Flora Street, located two blocks from the museum's Old City Hall building, indicates the district is still several months from completion. The building will soon house the Whatcom Children's Museum and several fine arts galleries.

The Lightcatcher building was scheduled to open November 2009, but fundraising for the project came to a screeching halt several months ago when Bellingham plunged into a recession along with the rest of the country.

With the current economic climate making it nearly impossible to begin such a large project, the city is lucky they took advantage of Campaign for the Arts fundraising opportunities when they did, Sundin says.

Adding a new museum facility was just one step among many to make the city a more inviting and welcoming place for tourists and the community.

In an effort to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, $1.6 million went toward streetscape projects like the one seen on the corner of Holly and Bay Streets. The busy intersection was restructured to accommodate a crosswalk, the sidewalk was widened to include a seating area and the "Sentinel" sculpture was installed.

Culver crosses his arms and rolls back on his heels amidst ladders, tarps and two-by-fours in what will soon be the newest addition to the Whatcom Museum. The outdoor courtyard of the Lightcatcher building, filled with large slate stones and budding ginkgo trees, is beginning to take shape. Standing beside Culver is Patricia Leach, the museum's executive director for the past two years. Leach's face lights up as she hears stories of the Arts District's early beginnings-struggles and victories that were before her time.

Three years of intense fundraising efforts enabled Campaign for the Arts to raise an estimated $5.5 million. With the current economy, however, Culver says the campaign is at a standstill. Donations have drastically decreased and goals have been pushed back 10 years because people in the community are unable or unwilling to give money to the cause.

"We were doing great until the bottom fell out of the economy," Culver says. "It has been very, very difficult to move ahead. We've chosen to sit it out for a little while."

The future of the project, which Culver says was smooth sailing up until several months ago, is looking bleak. The days of invitation-only events, guided tours of the developing Lightcatcher building and detailed presentations to prospective donors are over.

Culver says he devoted more than a decade of his life to the development of the Arts District because an entertainment district adds diversity and energy to the community. He passionately felt Bellingham needed the district to be whole, he says.

Alice Clark and Michel Falter, Pickford Cinema executive and program directors, know all too well the financial woes of the Arts District. As they climb a rickety staircase covered with sawdust at Pickford's new film center site, which is still under construction, they describe the student collaboration, extended film festivals and education programs in the new building.

Since September 2006, the directors have been looking to move from their cramped quarters on Cornwall Avenue to the more accommodating Dream Space building on Bay Street, a gateway to the Arts District.

"Film is the most accessible form of art there is, and we aim to serve a large part of the community," Falter says.

The new center will boast two theaters and a 250-person seating capacity, but nearly three years and $2.3 million later, the project is incomplete and in need of $1 million more, Falter says.

Including the Pickford as part of the Arts District ensures Bellingham's only independent cinema would continue to survive. Falter says the possibilities are endless for the Pickford, as long as they are able to move into their new, larger space.

Different sized photographs and drawings line Leach's office walls and cover her already cluttered and messy desk. The stacks of digitally created scenes are projections of what the Lightcatcher building will soon look like, and Leach cannot stop talking about them. As she describes the 42,000-square-foot building's Leadership in Engineering and Environmental Design certification and climate-controlled galleries, Leach becomes lost in her own thoughts.

"These projects take time," Leach says as she paces around her office overlooking Bellingham Bay. She adjusts her stylish, black-rimmed glasses and adds, "They never happen when you think they are going to happen. They always take longer."

Construction of the museum's new facility was scheduled to be complete in April 2009, but Leach says it will take at least seven more months of planning, building and fundraising to get the Lightcatcher building up and running.

To Leach, the completion of the two-year project signifies not only a new building, but also a new way of life for the community.

She says she hopes the trendier, fresher museum building will attract "Bellinghamsters" of all ages. She says her biggest hope is people will peruse cafes, restaurants, theaters, gallery walks and exhibition openings on a nightly basis in the Arts District. Especially when money is tight, free or inexpensive leisurely activities should be in high demand, Leach says.

"I see this as a really vibrant, active district with a lot of potential," she says.

Culver and Leach agree Campaign for the Arts still needs to raise another $3.1 million to keep the Arts District's grand opening on schedule. The museum has its only fundraising event of the year planned for July 2009 in the nearly-complete Lightcatcher building as a last ditch attempt to attract donors, and continue to involve the community in the district's progress.

It is important for residents to see how much their contributions helped build this district, Culver says. The project made it this far because of the hard work of numerous people and organizations.

Culver shields his eyes from the evening sun and looks out across the empty Lightcatcher building construction site. The project has come a long way since its start at the Pepper Sisters restaurant, and he can almost taste the satisfaction of a successful venture. He says it would be heartbreaking to see the project come so far just to falter in the end.

Culver says he is unperturbed by any economic hardships that threaten to thwart the completion of the Arts District. Even if he has to raise the remaining money one penny at a time, he is determined to see this rebirth through.