One of the county’s most beloved cultural institutions could soon significantly expand its offerings and physical footprint.

The Old Art Building in Leland has been a community gathering place for decades. This week, its board of directors announced the public phase of a $5.5 million campaign that will allow the organization to more than double the size of its campus, upgrade its existing building and bring more programming to the community.

“This place has been a treasure for generations, and it was a group of community members who had the forethought and worked tirelessly years ago to make sure it remained here for the community,” OAB Executive Director Sarah Mills tells The Ticker. “Now we’re presented with this unprecedented opportunity…to expand our campus to benefit current generations and future generations as well.”

Mills says they’ve already raised $4.3 million in cash and pledges since the campaign began in May. The bulk of that ($3.2 million) went towards the purchase of a roughly 1.2-acre property just down Cedar Street across from the Leelanau Historical Society Museum and Leland Township Library (see above image).

This new campus will likely house a “new” art building along with walking paths and natural picnic areas, pollinator and perennial gardens and outdoor classroom space. The campaign also includes important sound, lighting, accessibility and other upgrades to the existing 102-year-old building.

The seeds of this expansion were planted as the board engaged in strategic planning after the COVID pandemic. The pandemic taught them the value of quality outdoor space, Mills says, something that was previously underutilized. But they also were grappling with increased demand for use of their sole building and having to balance often incompatible uses, leading to a less-than-stellar community experience.

“Given that we really only had one (year-round) space to use, we just couldn’t deliver on a lot of those requests,” Mills says.

Thoughts included building an addition, though leaders were leery about altering the integrity and charm of the historic structure. It wasn’t until sisters Jessica and Jennifer Lukomski approached the OAB in the summer of 2023 about purchasing their adjacent land that the idea of a new campus began to materialize.

“We were not going out looking for property. Had this opportunity not presented itself, we would have been trying to figure out something on our current site to make this all work,” Mills says. “And we didn’t know if we could (buy the land) right away, but we were thrilled to even have that opportunity for the board to discuss.”

Though it would be a huge fundraising lift, the board knew they had to go for it, Mills says.

“They ultimately said that we had to try. They all unanimously believed in this and knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” she says. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

After a professional feasibility study that included dozens of interviews with community members and a full assessment of what would be required on both the current and new campuses, the total dollar amount was settled upon. Mills said the OAB team has been blown away by the community support in the early phase of the campaign.

“It has been an incredible community effort thus far,” Mills says. “We cannot say thank you enough to the people who have stepped up to support this vision for the future and their willingness to invest in it.”

Though the new campus has to move from conceptual to actual, buildable design, one thing is for sure: It’s going to give the OAB a ton more flexibility with programming.

“As an example, we have a long history of hosting art exhibits, but because we also have a lot of community uses, wellness and exercise classes and things like that, those exhibits are often limited in how long they can be up,” Mills said. “We want to have gallery space that can be more permanent, so that shows can stay up longer or actually feature the work of visiting artists over a longer period of time.”

More classroom space will also mean more programming, education and more.

“We’re doing so much now with arts enrichment for youth, but it becomes a matter of finding the the space to put it. And these classes are selling out minutes after we put them on the website, we're hearing from more demand from families,” Mills says. “We also hear regularly from artists who would love to have studio space available.”

And despite the boost a new building will provide, the idea is to keep structures on the property to a minimum and develop a lush, green natural campus that will serve to enrich resident and visitors, Mills says. 

“Right now, we're kind of reactionary to where we can put an outdoor class if we need to, but with our (new campus), we can be really intentional about designing outdoor class space again for youth and adults and having green space for the community,” Mills says. “It’s really important that green space and access to the natural waterfront is accessible to people living in the village and visitors coming in."