Munster schools looking to buy Center for Visual and Performing Arts, one of Northwest Indiana’s biggest cultural hubs

The Munster school district is looking at acquiring the Center for Visual and Performing Arts at 1040 Ridge Road in Munster. The 72,660-square-foot arts center, a longtime pillar of cultural life in Northwest Indiana since it opened in 1989, has long been run by the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, the nonprofit arm of the Community Healthcare System.

It’s home to the South Shore Arts offices, gallery, gift shop and studio, as well as the Northwest Symphony Orchestra office, Trama Catering, a ballroom and the Theatre at the Center, one of Northwest Indiana’s only professional theaters. It’s where Region residents go to see plays, musicals, one-person shows, concerts, standup comedy and contemporary art exhibits.

Region residents can buy art from local artists in the gift shop, attend lectures, go on guided gallery tours and take art classes. Kids, adults and seniors learn sculpting, drawing, painting and other artistic disciplines there. People have celebrated countless wedding, receptions, anniversaries, banquets and other special occasions in the grand ballroom, which hosts a popular Sunday brunch.

Munster Schools Superintendent Bret Heller said the school district was at a preliminary stage of expressing interest in the property, which the Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana had made available. The school would potentially use part of the building for its administrative offices, use the auditorium for some of its high school programming and work with tenants like South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra to offer opportunities to its visual arts and performing arts students.

“This is a long and complex process,” he said. “We’re declaring interest in acquiring the property now known as the Center for Visual and Performing Arts. We’re doing our due diligence. We believe acquiring the property would have a number of benefits.”

The board voted 3-0-2 Monday to start negotiations with Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana. Two members abstained because of conflicts of interest.

“The location on our Columbia Avenue corridor would have short-term and long-term benefits,” Heller said. “The seven-acre property with an existing building would give us short-term and long-term flexibility. Given the aging condition of this administration building, we face the decision to tear it down, renovate it or restore it.”

The Munster school district potentially could use a “small portion” of the arts center as a central office. It also sees cultural synergies.

“Incorporating the auditorium is particularly appealing for our programs at the high school,” he said. “We now have high school performances and events in the high school auditorium we could have there.”

It also potentially would mean more educational opportunities for students, who could have educational experiences through South Shore Arts or the Northwest Indiana Symphony, he said.

“It will be an expansion of opportunities and new opportunities for students, staff and the community,” he said.

The School Town of Munster is looking at paying for the project with a mortgage bond that also will fund renovations to the high school auditorium and other school facilities and not require a referendum. Heller said the process would be more complicated than the average building purchase.

“There are tenants who likely will have questions,” he said. “We need to sit down with these folks. This is the first step in a long process.”

The school administration building is currently 7,000 square feet. It was built in 1980 and is the district’s least energy-efficient building, Heller said. The schools likely would use 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of the Center for Visual and Performing Arts as administrative space. 

The School Town of Munster is interested in building a multipurpose sports center in the future, but is not looking to do it at that site, Heller said. It would ideally be closer to the high school and middle school along Columbia Avenue, he said.

The building, the former James F. Lanier Elementary School before the Center for Visual and Performing Arts opened in 1989, would undergo some renovations to create office space for the school.

Heller said the schools are interested in keeping South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra there as tenants and appreciates the role the arts play in the community but that it likely would not continue to host Theatre at the Center performances, weddings, banquets, brunches or other special events.

“We’re not looking to be in the events business,” he said.

Part of the problem is the school cannot hold a liquor license, which would make it unattractive for wedding and the themed dinners that often accompany plays there.

South Shore Arts and Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra board members asked to be looped into the process.

“We appreciate you involving us each step of the way. This is a vital, important center for our community, not just to Munster but to Northwest Indiana,” South Shore Arts board member Carly Brandenburg said.

David Mika, the executive director of South Shore Arts and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, said the arts groups recently learned of the plans.

“Obviously, this transaction is of great interest to us, having served the community for 80 years,” he said. “The Center for the Visual and Performing Arts has served the broader community for 30 years. It’s hosted everything from theater to music to paining to drawing to ceramics to gallery exhibits. We bring artists from across the country. We bring exposure to Munster.”

South Shore Arts and the symphony long have had relations with the schools in town, Mika said.

The Every Kid program provides art and literacy programs at no cost to the schools. The Northwest Indiana Symphony Youth Orchestra provides opportunities for Munster students to take the stage. South Shore Arts’ Tri-County Art Show displays the artwork of many Munster students.

“We have a strong relationship with the schools,” he said. “We have questions and would love to know the vision and the thought process. The Legacy Foundation recently identified arts and culture as one of the biggest things in Northwest Indiana. The Star Plaza came down years ago. We’re still a major arts center in the area, something that impacts arts and culture across the whole Region.”

Dave Ryan is the president of the Northwest Indiana Symphony and believes it needs to be looped into the process, especially since its new fiscal year is coming up and it has to pass a budget.

“We’ve been nomads since we lost the Holiday Star,” Ryan said. “It was a 3,000-seat theater and it’s been hard to find a replacement. We have a lot of questions relative to this space. Please include us in this process.”