Dancing toward a vision

by Sharlene Irete

People Editor

The old Copeland lumber building has six sliding garage doors large enough to accommodate a herd of elephants, but plans are to create a performing arts center from the 20,000-square-foot space.

The Carson Valley Arts Council offers a chance for residents to check on the progress on the transformation at the Sneak Peek dinner and dance at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Casual dress is recommended as the transformation is in the early stages. The building has been cleared of most of the remnants of the lumber business and of the previous avian inhabitants. The exposed wooden beams have been recently pressure-washed.

"This is a fresh look considering the clean-up process in the past few weeks," said Brian Fitzgerald, president of the Carson Valley Arts Council. "They brought in some fill donated by Bing Materials for the floors. It's been cleared out and cleaned up.

"We still need to remove the lumber racks so we're down to four walls and a roof," he said. "We're keeping the beams. There's a lot of history and character with the old beams which will remain exposed."

The Copeland Lumber building was built in the 1970s at Highway 395 and County Road and has been abandoned for years.

The eventual plan is for a 400-seat auditorium with backstage and rehearsal areas to accommodate local productions and touring performances. Some of its multiple functions include being a place for conferences, workshops and lectures.

"The purpose of the Sneak Peek event is to give people the chance to see the potential of the facility " the vision," said Fitzgerald. "And to help people see we're a small organization and need volunteers. We're at a point that our existing funds are running low. We need to create excitement to get funds from private donors and grants."

He said the council needs funds to make the mortgage payments on the property and to keep up on the long list of improvements to bring the building up to code to become a performing arts center.

Private donations have made the purchase of the Copeland property possible. The arts council has received donations and support from Tahoe Ridge Winery, the Nevada Arts Council, architect Ralph Eissmann, the Smallwood Foundation, Mike Gilbert, the Malkmus Foundation and to GE Energy whose volunteers donated the labor and materials to paint the outside of the building last spring.

"First and foremost is Big George Ventures," said Fitzgerald.

A donation from Ray Sidney of Big George Ventures made it possible to make the $350,000 down payment on the $1.85 million parcel.

"We need to launch a capital campaign to generate $1.5 million to secure the title, which would make us eligible for brick and mortar grants," said Fitzgerald, "but the initial focus is on paying off the mortgage debt and becoming eligible for grants."

The arts council plans to host the third season of their concert series in the CVIC Hall this winter.

For more information on the Carson Valley Arts Council arts center, go to www.cvartscouncil.com