Anonymous donor gives $18,500 to Center for Arts
By MICHAEL MOLITORIS

The money is to be used to buy supplies from an established arts center in Jamestown, N.Y.

The Oil Valley Center for the Arts and Oil City's downtown arts revitalization effort took a huge leap forward this month.

An anonymous city donor gave the Oil City Arts Council and the downtown arts movement $18,500 to purchase supplies from an already-established art center in Jamestown, N.Y. The old center's dozens of items will take up residence in the city's National Transit Building and its yellow annex along Seneca Street.

"This will give us the capability of greatly enlarging the course offerings at the Oil Valley Center for the Arts," said Libby Williams, arts council chairwoman. The downtown arts movement, known as ARTS Oil City, operates as a subset of the arts council.

The Center for the Arts occupies most of the main Transit Building's first-floor, including a performance space that doubles for exercise and music classes, and a studio area where painting and craft classes are taught.

The new studio supplies are three years old and come from New York artist Dave Poulin, the same person who helped Oil City elementary school students create bronze statues during the past couple years. Williams said that Poulin offered the equipment to groups in Titusville, Franklin, Meadville and Oil City.

The supplies will allow the art center to offer classes in areas including ceramics, fabric dying, weaving and papermaking. Ceramics materials include kick wheels, four kilns, a slab roller, glazes and dozens of tools.

Other items include wooden looms, tables, chairs, shelving, 40 assorted easels, canvasses, oil paints, water color paints, acrylic paints, crock pots, dyes, vats, mirrors, beadwork materials, drawing materials, plastic molding masks, texture tools, and clay - among scores of other items.

"This would all cost us about $50,000 if we had to pay for it new," added Lee Mehlburger, chairman of ARTS Oil City. "I think with this, we will find people coming out of the woodwork and people will know we mean business with the arts."

The arts leaders said the equipment will overspill the confines of the first-floor art center into previously agreed-upon space in the yellow annex. ARTS Oil City had decided the non-profit complex, operated by the Oil City Civic Center, would serve as an ideal activity hub for the arts movement.

"The Oil City Civic Center has been very supportive of what we need to do," Williams said.

Where the arts council strives to provide cultural entertainment and enrichment to the region, the arts initiative is working to bring new artists to Oil City and build the downtown community as a live-and-work attraction.

"With this new acquisition, we'll be able to attract artists who know we're interested in teaching new skills to people and to the community," Williams added. "This is a real commitment to growth. We are going to be more of an arts community than we are now."

"We have individuals in the community with the financial backing who are willing to back this program (with the new equipment), and we can't thank them enough," Mehlburger said.

The new studio and teaching equipment will not arrive in Oil City until after July 4, and the arts council is looking for volunteers willing to donate the services of a box truck to haul the goods back to the city.

Anyone interested may call Mehlburger at 678-2260.

May 24, 2007  The Derrick