White Bear Lake is craving a new arts center

In White Bear Lake, a city full of artists, momentum is building for a new arts center that would celebrate the heritage of boat building and the beauty of the east metro's largest lake.

The construction of a $2.5 million building at the lakeside Marina Village redevelopment would represent a major expansion of the White Bear Center for the Arts, said Suzi Hudson, the organization's executive director. The new center would be built on the former Johnson Boat Works business property near Hwy. 61.

"It's a hotbed for artists," she said of the city. "I'm continually amazed at the people here who are either proclaimed artists or secret artists." Her plumber, she said, is a poet.

But will the city's love affair with the arts translate into a successful funding drive? Hudson said that residents pledged $379,000 last fall but the arts center now faces several urgent funding "benchmarks" that the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority set last week.

"If halfway through the year we barely made a dent in the campaign then there is going to be a reason for concern," she said, although she's doubtful it will falter.

"If anybody can do it, Suzy can," said Jim Robinson, the city's community development director. "She's a dynamo."

Robinson said the proposed development, by Dennis Properties, would include a three-story building housing retail space and 10 condominiums, a second building with a possible restaurant and coffee shop, and the third building being the arts center. Owner Dennis Trooien has about nine months under a city agreement to find business tenants for the 1.6-acre development, Robinson said.

A new arts center would have 10 times more space than the existing quarters in the old Armory building in downtown White Bear Lake, Hudson said. She expects the new quarters would have a nautical theme both in appearance and programming.

Classes could include boat building -- in tribute to the work that took place on the lakeshore for many years -- and workshops on lake ecology, nature collages and building rain gardens, she said. The arts center also could teach participants how to make knives, carve wooden bowls or blacksmith, snowshoe or drive a dog sled, she said.

"Anything that really reflects crafts and the arts of the past makes sense for us to be exploring," she said.

Arts volunteers in White Bear Lake formed a council in 1968 but operated with no central staff or office for about 30 years. Once the council became known as Center for the Arts, Hudson said, it outgrew its Armory space and began offering classes at sites throughout the city.

Two years ago the center started teaching arts education to about 3,800 schoolchildren, she said.

She hopes construction can begin in a year.

The big lake from which White Bear Lake derives its name inspires passion for the arts throughout the city, Hudson said. "I think that connection to nature makes people more in tune to their creative side," she said. "I think it's a pretty soulful community, too, and maybe that comes from the nurturing of the lake."