The Arts Alliance Center sells art from local artists and hosts community events. (Katy Szpak)
With its lease ending in the next week, the Pillar Arts Alliance Center will be shifting locations within College Mall. The new home will be located a few doors down at the former Victoria’s Secret location by where Macy’s used to be.
Henry Leck, vice president of the Arts Alliance board, said the last day in the current location across from Blondie’s Cookies is this Saturday, June 14. The alliance has been on a temporary one-year lease at a discounted rate. But at any time, the mall could give the alliance a 30-day notice to move out if another tenant was willing to pay the current commercial rate.
The alliance will start moving to the new location June 17; the new lease starts July 1.
“It's going to take quite a bit of cleanup and setup and positioning,” he said. “The artists have been taking all their work out of the current space, so that's going to have to be all brought back in. So it's probably going to be a month's time before we're back up and running.”
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The new lease is also a temporary one, Leck said, and just slightly more expensive given the alliance will have twice as much space to work with. But he said it’s still nerve-wracking to be on a temporary lease.
“The good news is that we're providing a home for 50 artists to show their work,” he said. “And in this new space, we're going to be able to expand the size of the flex space so we can accommodate larger audiences for workshops and concerts, and we may even be able to supply studio space for some of our members. So all in all, it's worth the risk.”
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Leck said it only took him a day to find a new place. He chose the former Victoria’s Secret location because it was the only space available within the mall. While he is excited to move into the new place, it might be a challenge getting people to come in.
“The traffic used to come right past us going from Target to the food court,” he said. “Now we're going to be down in the end, near where the Macy's is closed. It's very close to Target, but I'm hoping that our community will come down that way and that we'll be able to serve our artists as well from that space as we have been in the previous space.”
The alliance has another location in the Fountain Square Mall on Kirkwood Ave.
