New sign tells Bowlus story

By BOB JOHNSON
Register City Editor

Register/Bob Johnson A large sign outside the Thomas H. Bowlus Fine Arts & Cultural Center, with LED component wishes passersby a “Happy New Year,”blends in well with the architect of the structure, which will be 45 years old in 2009.

The Bowlus Fine Arts Center has a large new sign that better fits its imposing presence in Iola.
The project started with a design sketched by Susan Raines, the center’s director, including an LED (light-emitting-diode) component to advertise current and upcoming events.
After consulting with Charles Shetlar, who had a hand in the center’s design in the early 1960s, she turned the sketch over to Larry Robertson.
A brick mason of considerable skill, Robertson found brick that matched that used in construction of the arts center and fashioned the sign so it fit hand-and-glove esthetically with the building.
With its completion in late August, the new sign, minus the LED display, was several times larger than the original.
Available financing would determine when the lighted display could be added.
That happened sooner than Raines thought would be possible.
The basic sign cost $10,000 for materials and labor. Initial quotes for the LED part were near an additional $14,000.
Raines had in hand $10,000 for the sign, all from donations, and was planning a fund-raising effort for the LED portion when providence reared its head. Last month she was offered the high-tech component for $3,000 less than the previous quote, $10,640. She rued turning down a $3,000 discount that had limited time of availability.
About $3,000 has been raised for the lighted display that scrolls messages across its board, meaning roughly $7,500 more is needed to make the added feature paid for.
Over time the LED sign will pay for itself, Raines said.
“We have had to pay $150 for each of the banners used in the past to advertise events,” she said.
Raines hopes to have donations banked to pay for the LED sign by late spring. She is convinced that going ahead with the total project was the right thing to do and that fund raising will be successful.
“It’s much more professional than what we had and a real attention-getter,” she said.
Also, it’s an example of what many local people are willing to do to keep the Bowlus Center on the cutting edge.
Two other advantages associated with the Bowlus occurred this year.
Friends of the Bowlus purchased a house on South Buckeye Street, a stone’s throw from the center’s back doors, had the structure removed, along with several trees, and built a concrete parking area.
“The new parking lot belongs to the Friends, and they expect it to be used by people attending events at the Bowlus Center,” Raines said.
Others, prompted by proposals and plans from Don Hillbrant, Iola’s green thumb, have spent many hours landscaping areas on the north and west sides of the Bowlus Center. Master gardeners who have donated time and talents, in addition to Raines, have been Patty Boyd, Nancy Maier, David Lee, Debbie Beardon, Loraine Shirley and Ellery Robertson.
“Next, sometime this spring, we want to complete the project with mulch,” which will be a good backdrop for shrubs and flowers, Raines said.

THE NEW YEAR promises other improvements.
Following a March 2 event, the auditorium will be closed so that the stage may be refinished for the first time since the Center opened in September 1964.
During the past 44-plus years thousands of feet, large and small, musical instruments and props have scarred the floor.
“A quarter inch of the floor will be sanded away and then it will be primed and painted matte black,” Raines said. “Also, the front edge of the stage will be refinished.”
That work is expected to take about a month.
Another 2009 project will be to remodel a lounge area near the Creitz Recital Hall into a kitchen, where caterers will have opportunity to prepare food for all sorts of events.
“We won’t have a cook stove or oven (lack of ventilation prevents installation of either), but we will have a water source, cabinets and other amenities to help with preparing and serving food,” she said. “We have $20,000 that was donated for the kitchen.”
Maintenance, such things as roof repairs and tuck-pointing of exterior brick surfaces, has been done at appropriate times and similar chores will crop up now and again. Inspections, including those to make certain overall structural integrity has not deteriorated, are made periodically. Most recent ones have found the art center is standing up well to the test of time.

THE FUTURE may hold substantive changes in the way education is delivered in the building, a significant portion of its mission from day one.
USD 257 board members, who also sit as Bowlus trustees, have discussed more reliance on project-based education at the high school level. If the day comes when that is pervasive, the Bowlus Center will fit snugly into the model for visual and performing arts.
In many respects that’s what Thomas H. Bowlus, the center’s benefactor, had in mind when he set aside money more than 50 years ago to build the center and provide a $1 million trust to support it.