They've found a new home.
Gallery director Mary Kelley confirmed that the Sandpiper will be moving to a Main Street location come March.
The new location is a storefront at 306 1/2 Main St. currently occupied by Alpine Tipis.
“It's a great space,” Kelley said. “It's a better location than what we've got now. For one thing, it's a storefront and there are a lot of people who still don't know we're in the library building.”
The library, located at 2 First St. E., is north of Polson City Hall and the Polson Fire Department, and pretty much removed from the Polson business district.
By March, the gallery will be in the heart of it.
“We anticipate being able to be open longer in the summertime now,” Kelley said. “Right now, we're guided by when the library is open. If the library is closed, we have to be closed, too. Now we'll be able to be open nights when there are downtown events happening and be a part of the Main Street goings-on.”
The new location is owned by Dick Bratton and his wife Sandy Farrell, who also own Alpine Tipis.
Bratton, whose wife is a Sandpiper member, isn't going out of business. He's just shutting down the retail end of Alpine Tipis and focusing on his wholesale business, which he'll move to the back of the building.
And he's remodeling the space out front for the gallery. A false ceiling is being removed, which will uncover an old tin ceiling and make the walls higher. Bathrooms are being installed and fresh paint applied, and work is planned on the floor, wiring and plumbing.
“Dick Bratton is giving us a very good deal on it,” Kelley said. “It's his way to help promote the arts in Lake County. He and Sandy are going to be the best landlords.”
At 1,300 square feet, the new spot will be smaller than the library location, and the gallery will have to give up work space it has been able to offer members.
“We'll have to downsize, and take everything we need, not necessarily all the stuff we'd like to save,” Kelley said. “But we'll be able to continue to offer workshops, we'll just have to do it in the gallery itself. We'll make it work.”
She said Sandpiper members hope the more prominent storefront location and much higher foot traffic on Main Street will help draw in many more people to the gallery, and offset the loss of space.
“It really is a wonderful gallery space,” Kelley said. “It's a long, narrow room. We'll have the same gallery space, we just won't have the work space.”
Sandpiper members launched a search for a new home soon after learning they'd be getting the boot by the city, and it wasn't going well for a while. A buy-sell agreement on one property was terminated when an inspection found several problems with the building.
Kelley said Sandpiper members raised several thousand dollars to help complete the library building in 1986, and while they didn't expect to be able to stay there forever, “we were surprised it came so soon,” she said. “Maybe we were like ostriches with our heads in the sand and figured we wouldn't worry about it until it happens, but it still felt like it happened suddenly.”
The Sandpiper Gallery has 70 members. Their biggest event of the year is an annual summer arts festival on the courthouse lawn that draws thousands of people and helps the gallery give college scholarships to students from Lake County who want to study art.
“Celebrate Change,” by the way, features 100 pieces by Sandpiper members and will be up until the gallery shuts its current doors on March 6. Current hours are noon-5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon-4 p.m. on Saturdays.
Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at vdevlin@missoulian.com.
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