The Rosemount residents who want to open an arts center look at the old Catholic church downtown and see much more than a brick building with a steeple. They dream of a community theater, poetry classes, a small art gallery.

They're amateur filmmakers and woodcarvers, with a few semi-professionals sprinkled in -- here an art teacher, there a knitting instructor. But many of the people who have showed up to meetings of the newly formed Rosemount Area Arts Council are just regular suburbanites who want an alternative to going to a movie on a Friday night.

"There's just not a lot of that in Rosemount outside the high school," said Nathan Hansen, a council member and newspaper editor whose recent creative endeavors include making and decorating a table.

The old Church of St. Joseph has turned into a lightning rod for those dreams. The new council, which held its first fundraiser last weekend, hopes someday to turn the city-owned church into an arts hub where, as resident and dinner-theater director Keith Reed put it, "Everyone can come and find something that they want to do."

Rosemount's mini-renaissance comes as many Twin Cities suburbs are embracing arts centers as a way to give talented residents a creative outlet while enlivening main streets.

"The arts really is a unifying element in many small towns," said Stephanie Molstre-Kotz, an art teacher at Eagan High School who helped found the Arts Council while serving as a member of the city-appointed task force charged with brainstorming the best use for the Hwy. 3 church, which Rosemount bought in 2004.

But the number of enthusiastic residents who have stepped up to support the Arts Council has surprised even its founders. Just months after Molstre-Kotz came up with the idea, dozens of people showed up to an organizational meeting in November, and well over 100 paid $37 apiece for tickets to "Caribbean Cruise Conspiracy," a Friday dinner-theater performance of a mystery written and directed by Reed.

The group is also planning a short-film festival to open Leprechaun Days, Rosemount's annual celebration in July.

A long-term project

Turning the church into a full-fledged arts center may not happen for years. The St. Joseph's task force reported back to the City Council this winter, recommending an arts center as the best use of the building, but in the near future, the church will be used for community events such as concerts, weddings and banquets.

For now, many arts supporters hope to pass an $8 million bond referendum on April 22. Most of the money would go toward a new athletic complex, but about $1 million would pay for code and accessibility upgrades to the church that could be done by the spring of 2009.

Long-term, the old St. Joseph's could turn into a performance space, a gallery or a museum, said Dan Schultz, the city's parks and recreation director. The task force toured several reconditioned churches and multi-purpose buildings to gather inspiration, including the Lakeville Area Arts Center -- another former Catholic church -- and the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis.

Even without the church, the Arts Council has already sparked new creative energy in many residents.

"You kind of let that go dry just to pay the bills," said Beth Adams, a council member and full-time mom who majored in communications and art in college and now makes short films for fun.

But working on the council is like finding a hidden community that was there all along.

"To me, it's almost like all these scattered artists, trying to find one direction and one home."

Sarah Lemagie • 952-882-9016