Yuba-Sutter arts council optimistic about leasing building

It's coming down to the wire for the Yuba-Sutter Regional Arts Council's new artist studio space and gallery venture on D Street in Marysville.

But the project's chief organizer, arts council treasurer Lily Noonan, believes her Wednesday deadline to raise initial start-up funds will be met.

The council needs roughly $2,800 to cover a security deposit, business license, insurance payment and to get a start on the year's property tax payments, according to Noonan's estimates.

"Then we can sign the lease, and, hopefully, all the artists will come racing over with art and nails and paint," she said.

A real estate broker representing Haney Properties, the owner of the downtown building, approached the arts council in October with the unique, rent-free proposal.

The 6,500 square-foot store space that once housed D Street Mercantile would be made available for use as an artists' cooperative, according to the proposal.

"It was such an unusual opportunity and there was no way in hell we were going to pass it up," Noonan said.

She and other members of the local arts community have been racing ever since then to raise money, formulate a game plan, and entice fellow artists to sign up.

Nine artists have committed thus far to renting either studio or gallery space in the cavernous building.

Inger K. Price, a former welder and and seamstress, uses found and recycled materials and objects in her work.

She was among the first to sign on, and to begin soliciting for donations to create the artists' space.

"Not to sound cheesy, but my main motivation has to do with the big picture," she said. "This community needs something positive so badly — something that gets people's wheels turning."

Noonan, recently hired to manage the Mary Aaron Museum's inventory, said she is hoping the D Street project will give artists not only visibility and a community of support, but that it will allow them to develop better ways of marketing their work and interacting with the public.

The lease offer is due to start late this week, and initial startup funds must be in place, she said.

Donations were made at the arts council over the weekend, she said.

"I'm not sure how close we are," she said. "But I know we're close."

CONTACT reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4781.