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Dunedin Fine Art Center Planning Major Expansion

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: December 5, 2008

DUNEDIN - Officials at the Dunedin Fine Art Center would like to roughly double the size of the art museum and education center in Highlander Park to keep up with the growth of the center's collection and programs.

This week the city gave the expansion plan its tentative blessing.

Thursday night, Dunedin Fine Art Center Director George Ann Bissett told the City Commission it will take a number of years to raise the $8 million to $10 million that would be needed to pay for a makeover of the center.

DFAC leaders want to expand the center from its current one-story, 18,447-square-foot configuration into a two-story structure of about 36,000 square feet.

Now 34 years old, DFAC has expanded about once every decade to keep up with the growth in its offering and services, according to Assistant City Manager Harry Gross.

When it opened, the private, nonprofit art center only had 2,836 square feet of space.

The popularity of many of DFAC's 2008 summer program forced center officials to move offerings like stone carving and jewelry making to off-site locations. Some were held in city-owned buildings slated to make way for the planned Gateway commercial complex, Gross noted.

The center is cramped for studio and gallery space, Bissett said.

As part of the expansion, the 3,000-square-foot children's museum area would be demolished and replaced with a 4,400-square-foot youth facility.

About 7,500 square feet would be added to the first floor for textile, ceramic and print studios and exhibition galleries. The planned 8,734-square-foot second floor would be home to painting, pastel and jewelry making studios, plus DFAC offices.

Art studios and the museum display areas would be redesigned to let in more natural light.
Collman & Karsky Architects, the Tampa firm that drafted the preliminary design for the DFAC expansion, has included a 2,750-square-foot roof garden. It would conform to environmentally friendly Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design building criteria.

DFAC plans to undertake an ambitious fundraising campaign on behalf of the expansion project, Bissett said. Its goal would be acquiring the needed $8 million to $10 million in about 3 years, she said.
Commissioner Julie Scales commended DFAC officials for thinking big and trying to maintain the center's standing on the regional art scene.

Commissioner gave museum officials the green light to expand in Highlander Park. The commission, however, still must approve the plans for the DFAC expansion.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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