Kids arts center kicks off fundraising

Anna Webb, Idaho Statesman

November 3rd, 2007 - The Treasure Valley Institute for Children's Arts has been a labor of love from the very beginning.

So on Saturday, the institute, to be housed in a former church at 14th and Eastman Streets in Boise's North End, got a little more love from the community.

KATHERINE JONES for the Idaho Statesman Members of the Children's Dance Institute's Leap -Troupe christen the basement of the new Treasure Valley Institute for Children's Arts with a little performance. "I really love dancing," says one member, Simone Migliori, 9. "I'm really excited about (the new building)." TrICA will be home to the Children's Dance Institute and the Open Door Children's Theatre, along with plans for arts and music studios, a children's library, studio space and gardens.

Project director Jon Swarthout joined Mayor Dave Bieter, Dan Everhart from Preservation Idaho and others on the building's front steps to kick off a capital campaign aimed at raising $2 million.

The money will be used to fill the historic structure with dance studios, arts and performance spaces and to make its original stained glass shine and its century-old roof rain-worthy once again.

The effort got a $100,000 head start from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation. Vashti Summervill, director of the Open Door Children's Theatre, which will be part of the institute, said volunteers gave more than 400 hours to clean the building from top to bottom and haul away trash, old engines, toilets and tires.

"I feel such gratitude. This is an embodiment of community," Summervill said.

She, Swarthout and the other teachers and parents working on the project have been guided by a "leap and the safety net will appear" philosophy.

"This building wants to fly. This building wants to dance," Bieter said to loud applause from the morning crowd. "Let's make this happen no matter how long it takes."

The time frame is uncertain, but the strands of the safety net appear to be coming together. Donated services and money already add up to $250,000.

KATHERINE JONES for the Idaho Statesman TrICA has kicked off a $2 million campaign to fill the 100-year-old church at the corner of 14th and Eastman streets with children's dance studios and arts and performance spaces.

The public will be able to watch the progress of the capital campaign on a sign outside the building.

As money comes in, red permanent markers will fill up the outline of an old-fashioned barn.

Swarthout, a fourth-generation Idahoan whose family still owns a farm in Melba, said the barn-raising imagery was no accident.

"Building TrICA is like a barn raising." he said. "By helping one project, you help the whole community."

Swarthout founded the Children's Dance Institute and recently received a Mayor's Award for excellence in arts education.

He had watched the former church at 14th and Eastman streets for years. Though the place was in bad shape — Preservation Idaho listed it as one of the most endangered historic buildings in Idaho in 2003 — Swarthout always thought it was hiding its true identity: a children's arts center.

He struck up an acquaintance with the building's owner and visited regularly.

His persistent inquiries about whether the building was for sale often would be met with the owner's tantalizing, "sometimes."

Finally, after about two years of visits, one of those "sometimes" turned into a "yes." Swarthout and teaching partner Tracy Straus pooled their money and bought it.

Saturday's festivities — conga drums, children dancing free-form to the music of a teenage band — included one sad note.

Before Swarthout led a public tour through the old church's now-emptied basement, destined to hold an art space and small stage, he asked visitors to take a moment to remember his friend and fellow teacher, Jon Jon Stravers.

Stravers and his son, Jonah, died in a car accident on Labor Day weekend. Stravers had planned to teach music at the institute.

Anna Webb: 377-6431, awebb@idahostatesman.com