After 20 years at the same quaint location at 130 Plaza St., the Healdsburg Center for the Arts (HCA) will be taking up new digs at 334 Center St. — the current home of Plaza Paints — and will reopen this fall.
The popular nonprofit arts organization is moving out of its Plaza Street location on July 31 after receiving word earlier this year that its lease would not be renewed.
News of the change came during a May 17 Healdsburg City Council meeting when HCA Board President Kathy Birdsong made a comment during the public comment session prior to the start of the regular agenda items.
“Our art festival on the Plaza and Art After Dark are only two of the many events the city has enjoyed over the years. Our art exhibitions, our camps, our after school art classes and many art classes and experiences have been popular and appreciated for years. We’ve been named ‘best gallery’ in Sonoma County and awarded the perpetual five-star rating on Yelp, but today we learned that our landlord has chosen not to renew our lease. She has given us less than two months to vacate the premises so Idlewild Wines can take over our space,” Birdsong said during the May 17 meeting. “We’re not planning on going away. What we need is a new space and public support in our efforts to regroup.”
After the lease notice, Birdsong got to work searching for a new location and later a realtor friend told her the Center Street location would be coming available.
“As it ended up, he (the owner 334 Center St.) had my late husband as a teacher and he knew him and thought highly of him and they had actually fished together,” Birdsong said. “Once again, small town connections can be so positive.”
Plaza Paints is moving out of Center Street on July 31 and to the former B & B Lounge site at 1239 Healdsburg Ave., kitty-corner from Garret’s Hardware.
Birdsong said the move gives HCA a chance to redesign and open back up refreshed and renewed.
“The move is really monumental, but we are looking forward to our new space, it’s going to be good,” Birdsong said.
“This gives us a chance to redesign ourselves. We’ve always had the purpose of being not only a gallery, but an education center, so we reworked the vision and mission statement and I think that pretty well tells how we’re headed,” Birdsong said.
The new mission statement says HCA will be the “community catalyst for inspiring discovery and exploration of the arts.”
The statement goes on to say that HCA is a multi-disciplinary nonprofit organization recognized as a “cultural anchor in Healdsburg and for the surrounding communities.”
“HCA provides audiences of all ages, orientations and ethnicities a place to imagine, connect, learn, explore and provide access to experiences that inspire and transform,” according to the statement.
Birdsong said HCA will be having a location closing sale from July 2 through July 18, and then will be closed in terms of sales.
“We’ll spend the rest of the time until July 31 packing and moving. As you can see, we’re already in the process,” Birdsong said, pointing to a few stacked boxes in the back room of the HCA building.
She said the new location has a big front room space that offers more square feet than what they have at their current location, as well as a good-sized area for HCA to hold after school programs and classes. However, painting, flooring and electrical work will have to be done prior to opening the new location.
Had the HCA not found its new location, the Healdsburg Community Center would have offered to house the organization temporarily.
“We’ve reached out to Healdsburg Center for the Arts and offered them temporary accommodations should they not be able to find a new location before their deadline to move out of their current location,” Healdsburg Community Services Director Mark Themig told the Tribune in May.
The temporary accommodations would have included a classroom or two at the Healdsburg Community Center on Healdsburg Avenue.
Birdsong said the community services department has been very generous in working with HCA and offering them space if needed at the community center.
“Mark Themig is just one of my favorite people on the planet,” Birdsong said.
Themig said it’s unfortunate that HCA has to move from a location that they’ve been in for two decades, however, a new space may afford them the opportunity to grow.
“From what I understand, Healdsburg Center for the Arts has been fortunate to have a sympathetic landlord for a number of years who’s really helped them thrive in the space that they have with a reduced rent. The realities of business are that that position has changed and now they’re looking at something more along the lines of market rate,” Themig said. “I’m convinced that someone or another opportunity will come up that will allow Healdsburg Center for the Arts not only to exist, but perhaps even do better than what they could in their location.”
“The other element of this timing is that the city council will be considering the community-based arts and culture master plan that really helps identify the future of arts and culture in Healdsburg and how it already is an integral part of our community and how that can continue to grow and become even more important for our community. What’s a bit unfortunate is that Healdsburg Center for the Arts will have to move before that plan is finalized,” Themig said.
According to Themig, the completion date for the arts and culture master plan is this August.
Birdsong said it was energizing to be able to work on the arts and culture master plan and to know that HCA will have an integral part in that plan and in the future of arts in Healdsburg.
As for the new location on Center Street, Birdsong said the nonprofit plans on continuing its juried art exhibitions, art classes and after school programs and will also offer more classes with well-known artists.
Since the announcement regarding HCA’s need to find a new home, Birdsong said residents and visitors have been curious about HCA’s new location and how they can help the center.
“I feel like there is a lot of community support and there will be things that we need and we are a nonprofit, so hopefully people will look to this as a tax write off if they can help it,” Birdsong said.
The tentative opening date for the new HCA location is this September and once open, Birdsong said they’ll have a grand opening event.
“We need to include the community and that’s been sadly lacking with COVID restrictions,” Birdsong said.
