By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art is in need of more space and a new project will provide that space to aid for more classes and visitors to the museum
A new education center is planned to be built in what is currently the carriage house on the museum grounds
Director Eric Fuson says though this project has been planned for a long time, the pandemic taught us the need for human interaction the space would provide.
"So many times, artists even are kind of like I like to work by myself, but what 99.9% of us all realize is we really need that human interaction, we need that feedback, we need to share ideas, and that's what the education center is really going to excel at," Fuson tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr.
Fuson says the new space will also provide the opportunity for new classes and camps the museum can provide.
Fuson says the new space will also make it easier for people to interact with the museum in multiple ways
"Right now, we're limited a little bit with the hours that we do classes, because we have to have the museum open, we have to have somebody that can help monitor the collection and things the same time as the classes are going on," Fuson explains. "With this new space we'll be able to have a much wider range of times that classes can be offered that's more flexible for not just the teachers but the students."
Fuson says the education center will allow scheduling to be planned around when students can make it out and not just one set time.
Much of the funding for the project has already been raised Fuson says, but there is still a little more needed
"We have raised over $300,000 for the project, we just got our bids back to say this is how much it's going to cost, we have one grant of about $70,000 that will help us make this happen by the end of the year," Fuson says. "We're about that much shy at the moment 50 to 70 grand will polish it out to make it happen, we really want to push to make it happen by the end of the year."
Fuson says applications for grants will be made by the end of the year.