The Hansel Center, an icon of South Bend’s West Side community that once served as the Children’s Dispensary and housed Head Start offices, will soon undergo physical transformation into the University of Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture.
The historic structure, within South Bend’s museum district at 1045 W. Washington St., will undergo an adaptive reuse through a partnership involving the University of Notre Dame, South Bend Heritage Foundation and the City of South Bend. South Bend’s Redevelopment Commission today (Tuesday, June 28) approved a proposal, contingent on a forthcoming memorandum of understanding, by the City’s Department of Community and Economic Development to provide $930,000 toward the facility’s rehabilitation through a combination of Tax Increment Financing and federal Community Development Block Grants. The public funding is supplemented by funds from the University of Notre Dame in one of the largest investments to date from the University in off-campus community initiatives.
Pending Redevelopment Commission final approval, construction will begin under the management of South Bend Heritage Foundation, the South Bend Board of Public Works and Vanir Group Inc. (Vanir specializes in all aspects of commercial and institutional real-estate development. Vanir is headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., and its president currently serves as the chair of the University’s Institute for Latino Studies Advisory Council.) The renovation will include brick tuck-pointing, new roofing and waterproofing measures, interior demolition and reconstruction, new electrical and mechanical systems, parking and landscaping, and interior outfitting.
“This reuse of the Hansel Center not only creates a focal point for engagement by the University of Notre Dame with our African-American and Latino communities, but it also provides an opportunity to help transform our West Side,” said Mayor Stephen J. Luecke. “This effort continues a partnership that brought the two most prestigious national civic awards to South Bend for the revitalization of our Northeast Neighborhood and by creating a cultural landmark across the street from the Indiana University Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium, one of the award-winning projects featured in South Bend’s recent All-America City designation.”
The University of Notre Dame is in the latter stages of securing sufficient resources for the project to move forward. In addition to $930,000 from the City, the University of Notre Dame and members of the University family, local philanthropic organizations and businesses have collectively donated or pledged more than $1.5 million to the project. Principal donor organizations include members of the Institute for Latino Studies Advisory Council, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust and the Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center.
“This facility will strengthen the community by celebrating cultural diversity through its provision of a common and accessible space for community programming, art and education,” according to a proposal for the Center prepared by Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies. “The Center will provide a gathering space for the West Side community through its class and meeting rooms, gallery and outdoor spaces. We foresee that the result will be a local community center that will have national and international reach, one that will ultimately enable us to attract resources from outside the area that, in turn, can be used to help further strengthen the local community.”
A centerpiece of the Center is the relocation of the internationally renowned fine-art print studio, Segura Publishing, from Tempe, Ariz. “Segura’s continuous history of working with community on all levels of art education makes it a natural presence to anchor and shape a significant amount of the community programming, and will make the Center a national prominent print program with a strong focus on Latino and African-American art and Catholic religious iconography,” according to the proposal. “This relocation will provide an unprecedented opportunity to enhance the art and legacy of printmaking in the United States at the same time that we contribute to the revitalization of South Bend’s West Side.”
Besides the print studio, other offices of the University have plans to have a presence in the new Center. One of Notre Dame’s literary programs, Letras Latinas, also will find much-needed permanent space for its writer-in-residence initiative, and the Center also will provide space for gatherings of minority writers, publishers and editors from around the country with significant opportunities for community interaction.
The Center also will seek to:
· Provide West Side residents with a variety of high-quality, community-based education, arts and cultural programs.
· Create opportunities to bridge cultural backgrounds, encouraging a cross-section of residents to participate.
· Collaborate with the South Bend Community School Corp. to develop, implement and assess educational programs, activities, workshops and events that enhance and expand learning for children, adolescents and adult learners.
· Develop, present and support artistic programs of uncommon quality, which can attract a diverse audience.
· Allow local artists to develop and expand their skills in a supportive, collaborative environment.
· Strengthen religious education in the West Side through joint programs with faith-based institutions.
“The Notre Dame Center for Arts and Culture provides yet another anchor institution in this historic West Side neighborhood and will provide additional leverage to both public- and private-sector housing improvements in the neighborhood,” said Marco Mariani, executive director of South Bend Heritage Foundation.
More >>>>>