The Common Council met 10/05/2022 in a special session. The purpose of the session was for the Council to receive a presentation from the Trout Museum of Art on their proposal to build a new museum building within Ellen Kort Peace Park and then vote on whether or not to continue holding discussions on the proposal. After listening to the presentation, the Council discussed it and then ended up narrowing approving by an 8-7 vote to move forward to the next phase of discussions with the Trout.
The presentation was proceeded by approximately an hour of public comments. For the purposes of this recap, I will be skipping the public comment as well as the discussion by the Common Council and focusing only on the Trout’s presentation itself. I will then follow it up with a separate recap of the Council’s discussion and vote. I will also not be including all 42 PowerPoint slides from the presentation within the text of the recap, but you can download the full slide deck below.
Christina Turner, the executive director of the Trout Museum of Art, started things out by giving an overview of the museum’s history.
The organization had been around for 62 years. They were founded in 1960, moved to their first gallery on Morrison Street in 1972, and in 2002 were gifted the former Brettschneider Building.
The Trout Museum of Art today is a destination in Downtown Appleton.
Their mission was to inspire and connect all people through creative experiences and the visual arts. They believed that art opens people’s minds and changes their lives every day.
To accomplish this, they focused on art in three areas:
- Art Education
- Exhibitions
- Community Engagement
She reviewed some of the free programing that the offered including (a) weekly classes for youth through Outagmie County Youth and Family Services focused on providing skills to empower trauma growth, learning, and healing and (b) a monthly program for adults with memory loss.
She highlighted some exhibits and community projects including an exhibit walk with 25 stops in Downtown Appleton and a cancer survivor project that took place at the American Cancer Society Sole Burner 5K run.
She noted that the museum had also been a champion of female identifying artists, artists of color, and indigenous artists.
She said that the Trout organization had started Art in the Park 62 years ago and today that event brings in 20-30,000 visitors and has an economic impact of $1.4 million.
The museum’s goal was to provide leadership for the visual arts in our community and help all artists and arts organizations thrive and choose Appleton as their home.
She gave some background on how the Trout operated. It was a non-profit with a $1 million operating budget. 73% of their revenue was from donation and the remaining 27% came from memberships, sales from their store, and classes. She noted that membership was affordable and started at only $15 for a full year of access.
The museum was in a healthy financial position in that it was a destination in Downtown Appleton, was debt free with a reserve fund, and had a strategic plan that included building a new facility.
They needed to build a new facility because
- Their present building was 100 years old and inefficient.
- They were in a situation where they either had to do several million dollars in infrastructure updates or move to a new location.
- The current space was not built for exhibitions and classes.
- The elevator was too small for art or for a class of children to ride in.
- There was no loading dock, bus zone, or parking.
- It was difficult to drop off children.
Their current location was not efficient and had multiple difficulties. Because there was no parking or loading dock, they had to move crates of artwork across Houdini Plaza, sometimes in the rain, snow, or slush.
If they were to tear down their current building and rebuild in the same location, they would want to use their entire property which extended farther into Houdini Plaza than the current building did. They would also need to create freight elevator and install a loading dock entrance off of College Avenue or down Kimble Alley behind their building. But, even if they made all of those changes, a 4-5 story building was not idea for them.
The Trout Museum Board of Directors unanimously decided to move to a new location and build a new facility. Doing so provided a number of benefits and would allow them to increase their credibility and visibility by…
- Becoming an accredited museum and meeting professional standards
- Showing commitment to excellence
- Offering the highest public service
- Expanding programs that provide help, hope, and healing
- Increasing visitors
- Validating the museum’s work and accomplishments
- Expanding art loans and traveling exhibitions
- Fulfilling their public trust obligations
She finished up by saying that the Trout Museum of Art was capable of being one of the most important art centers in the state and bringing new visitors to Appleton, but they needed a new building to make that happen.
Curt Detjen then took over to talk about why they wanted to relocate to Ellen Kort Peace Park specifically.
They wanted to relocate to a park setting because an art museum in a part was a recipe that worked. He pointed to Central Park in New Yor which had multiple museums collocated within it, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend.
Ellen Kort Peace Park had not been the only location they looked at. They had, in fact explored a number of locations in and around Downtown Appleton, but, for a variety of reasons, all of the sites were either unavailable or unfeasible to build on. He mentioned that they had also been approached by other communities that were interested in having the Trout relocate, but they remained committed to looking for a site in Downtown Appleton.
Building within Ellen Kort Peace Park was a highly desirable option with beneficial synergies.
- It gave the Trout the opportunity to remain in Appleton.
- It allowed them to stay in the Downtown in a park setting. (He noted they had been very successful in the Houdini Plaza park setting.)
- Art was a contemplative and inspirational exercise that was very much like was the Ellen Kort Peace Park was intended to be. They believed that the museum and the park together could become a catalyst. [He probably didn’t intend this, but that made me think of Darth Vader holding his hand out to Luke Skywalker telling him, “Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son.”]
- It created synergy with the park, the museum, and the planned bridge crossing. Those three elements coming together would create one of the most distinctive and special places in the entire region. “It’s a place where people are going to want to be and when we think about attracting and retaining people—work force here in this area—special places, special opportunities are a big part of that. This will become a riverfront destination, and we expect we’ll drive more riverfront interest and that will help the city of Appleton.”
Shannon French, an architect from the Boldt Company, took over told talk about the site plan. He was pleased to be there and thanked the community for showing up. “I, like everyone else here, value the process, and I trust the process. So, I thank everyone for their comments and their opinions.”
He said, “We believe, like I presume everyone here, that Appleton is a great city and deserves a great art museum to anchor its cultural center.” They had been listening to the community input and the feedback from the city and were pleased to present a conceptual site plan that preserved and celebrated the essence of the Ellen Kort Peace Park while incorporation the Trout Museum of Art into the fold of its master plan.
Eric Bauman, another architect at Boldt, went into more detail about the site plan. They saw the museum building as an extension of the park, not something that would compete with it or be a drawback.
They located the building and the parking lot at the southernmost portion of the site. The building being located there would provide a nice visual and physical buffer from the existing railroad tracks, parking lot, power lines, and electrical substation at the southern end of the site. They believed this would make the park more peaceful and provide a much better backdrop as well.
The building would be a 30,000 square foot, single story building with a 17,000 square foot green roof which would be accessible from the park. The building would incorporate many sustainable and eco-friendly features. The parking lot would be relatively small and accommodate approximately 40-45 vehicles.
One the slide illustrating the project they included some calculations showing how much space the building, parking lot, and park would occupy. Parkland would be 81% of the lot, and the building and parking lot together would occupy approximately 19%. If the green roof of the building were factored in, the overall greenspace would jump up to 87%
He said that this conceptual design preserved the original Ellen Kort Peace Park master plan, and he stressed that a vast majority of the master plan was still intact. Feature from the original park master plan remained including trails and walking paths, the circular gather lawns, the butterfly garden, the peace ring and peace pole, the poets garden, and areas for sculptures. Additionally, the quilt garden could potentially be located on the green roof. Virtually all other aspects of the park remained.
Other building and site design features included sustainable storm water management strategies (including rain gardens and pervious paving), other green features such as the walk-on green roof, and solar power. Pedestrian friendly amenities included close access to public transportation. There would also be numerous outdoor patio spaces for art education and relaxing and many other spaces for contemplation, working, and socializing both inside and outside the museum.
There was also a small vehicle delivery area. Mr. Bauman mentioned specifically that there was a misconception that the museum needed a large loading dock; the museum did not need that. The delivery area would be a small portion of the parking lot for small vehicle deliveries.
He finished up by saying they were still in the early concept stages of the design process and looked forward to working with the city and other stakeholders in the effort to continue developing the project. They felt strongly that having the park and the museum together would be a wonderful benefit to the city as a whole. “Once again we see this as an extension of the park, not something that is competing with it.”
Curt Detjen took over the last part of the presentation and talked about the alignment of goals.
Throughout the research Imagine Fox Cities had done and the public feedback they had received, one of the things that surfaced was that the Fox Cities community wanted to be a place connected by shared spaces and a rich cultural environment. Appleton had a smaller town feel with an openness and cultural amenities that rival those of large metropolitan areas. That really defined Appleton.
The City of Appleton also had an Art in Public Spaces, and the Trout felt that their proposal to relocate to the park was very much in line with that policy.
They were excited about the possibility to have a culture/history walking corridor along the Fox River which could connect the Hearthstone, the Atlas Science Center, the Trout Museum of Art, the Ellen Kort Peace Park, Jones Park, and the Vulcan Street hydro-electric station replica. They thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for visitors and residents alike.
They believed this move would provide many benefits to the City of Appleton including:
- The Trout would stay in Appleton
- Appleton Downtown would remain the region’s art and culture district
- Ellen Kort Peace Park would be completed years ahead of schedule
- The Museum/Park/Bridge would create a new destination
- The Museum would be a connector and catalyst for riverfront development
- It would increase tourism and economic impact
- It would attract workforce members and talent
- The existing museum building would presumably return to the tax rolls
They believed that Appleton would benefit from a growing visual arts museum that adds to the quality of life and community culture without burdening tax revenues.
This was an exciting opportunity for a unique destination in Appleton that combined arts and culture, environment, and history.
In summary, they believed:
- The site plan had been very sensitive. They listened very closely to the public comments.
- This project would allow the park to be established years earlier than it otherwise would be.
- The Trout Museum would get to stay in Appleton.
- The Trout would be able to support Appleton’s longstanding aspirations to connect the Downtown to the riverfront
- This proposal could result in another beautiful integration of park, nature, and museum.
He finished up by saying that generations of leaders like the current Common Council had made decisions that created Appleton as a first-class city. The Trout Museum believed that Appleton, as a first-class city, deserved a first-class art museum as well. This collaboration was their opportunity to make that happen for current and future generations of residents of the City of Appleton.
He thanked them for the opportunity to get this far in the discussion process and asked to continue to phase 4 in which more questions would be resolved and answered.
[Honestly, the design as pictured is not terrible and seems to both preserve most of the park and mesh well with the park design. I’m actually impressed, because I was not expecting them to be able to make it look good. I’m a little curious whether the public response to the proposal would have been as negative as it was had this image been released very early when the request to begin discussions first became public.
Having said that, even if this was all approved, I don’t understand how they could afford to build any time soon given the state of the economy, rising inflation, and the current cost of construction, so I don’t know that approving this project would actually result in Ellen Kort Peace Park being completed years ahead of time as they suggest.
I also didn’t like the way they kept low-key threatening to move the museum to another city if they didn’t get to build on this site. It came off as tacky and petulant to me.
I can’t say I feel strongly one way or the other about this proposal. My neighbor lady came over yesterday and earnestly asked if she could put a Save Ellen Kort Peace Park sign in my yard, and I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I now have a Save Ellen Kort Peace Park sign in my front yard. In general, I don’t like rich people swooping in and co-opting the hard work of the common folk, which this move by the Trout kind of comes off as. At the same time, their proposal doesn’t look bad and leaves me thinking that moving the museum down there would probably increase activity to that area. Whether that’s a good, bad, or neutral thing I don’t know.]
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1002546&GUID=8B346131-37FC-4AEB-8825-911160BF3F09
Be the first to reply