Stage set for return of CSPS

The world will grow a little smaller as CSPS grows larger.

The historic building at 1103 Third St. SE is ready to fling open its doors on a whole new world of possibilities, fueled by a $7 million rehab of the 120-year-old Czech social hall after it was damaged in the floods of 2008.

The three-story building opened in 1891 and has been home to Legion Arts since 1991.

When it reopens Friday, cutting-edge performers from all corners of the globe will find new audiences in Cedar Rapids. Local artists will get a hand up in presenting, marketing and managing their work, through additional performance and gallery spaces, as well as an arts incubator where they can build their knowledge base. Three small businesses can set up retail shops on the ground floor, too.

Audiences will enter through a new tower with stairs and an elevator leading - for the first time - to an air-conditioned interior.

The neighboring 1916 firehouse will provide visiting artists with upstairs living quarters and main floor studio space.

That's a huge leap from Legion Arts' beginnings, co-founder Mel Andringa, 68, of Cedar Rapids, said during a recent building tour.

“When we started in this place 20 years ago, we thought we would do performance art three nights a week, and then it turned out that people were ready for that about six nights a year,” Andringa said with a laugh, “so then we started presenting other types of activities.”

The not-for-profit group has brought to area stages such huge artists as Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, Richie Havens, Janis Ian and Duncan Sheik, as well as artwork by Yoko Ono, Tuvan throat singers, a Czech bluegrass band, a punk-rock gypsy band, Irish jig bands and performance artists who express themselves through music, theater and dance.

Now Legion Arts owns the building, cementing its presence for years to come.

Support from city

Among the grants making the rehabilitation possible is $150,000 from the city of Cedar Rapids, along with rights to adjoining lots to improve parking and ambience in the burgeoning New Bohemia neighborhood.

The project merits city support for two reasons, according to Mayor Ron Corbett.

“You have a historic building being restored, which is a win for the community, and you also have Legion Arts, which is just a great organization in our community,” Corbett, 50, of Cedar Rapids, said.

“The two coupled together is a big win. It sends a message for the rest of Third Street and the New Bo area. ... It already has a few restaurants, and with CSPS and the year-round market around the corner, it will become a gathering place for the community,” he said

Corbett and his wife, who serves on the Legion Arts board of directors, will be at Friday evening's gala reopening, where ticket holders can tour the buildings, see a new art exhibit and hear Manchester native Susan Werner in concert.

Mix of old, new, reused

Andringa is still getting used to all the changes, but is eager to point out what's old, what's new and what's reused, from tin ceilings and retooled timber to the new entrance tower at the back of the building.

“You feel like you're in a familiar place, but every time you turn around, there's something new,” he said.

The venue is a testament to tenacity.

Twelve feet of raging waters from the Cedar River tore through the hall's lower levels in June 2008, but didn't reach the second floor, where most of Legion Arts' exhibits and concerts were held.

The fetid waters did force Andringa and Legion Arts co-founder F. John Herbert from their home in the former Osada apartments up the street and ruined decades of artwork in Andringa's studio in the historic firehouse next to CSPS.

The determined partners rose above the waters. They rolled up their sleeves, donned their boots and reopened the second-floor auditorium Sept. 26, 2008.

Legion Arts bought the building in June 2010 for $500,000 and closed the doors shortly thereafter for the renovation. Purchase price for the firehouse was $50,000.

Herbert said he and Andringa were looking to buy CSPS before the floods came, and even more determined afterward.

New challenges

With that has come new challenges, not only in discovering that the entire roof would have to be replaced, but in how to grow the grass roots operation to fit its expanded services. That's been the hardest aspect of the undertaking, said Herbert, 59, of Cedar Rapids.

“A huge question for an organization that has a $200,000 (operating) budget remains the huge transition,” Herbert said. “We're going from being a very, very improvisational, very imaginative and creative, but somewhat unencumbered organization with an artistic responsibility but not a lot of property responsibility” to an entity with increased artistic duties, financial duties and property duties.

The building is debt-free, so they won't have mortgage payments to contend with, Herbert said, but they will need to grow the budget to $500,000 over the next year or so. The organization has three full-time, one part-time and several contract staff workers and hope to add several more positions. About 100 people are on the volunteer rosters.

As gleaming as the new surroundings are - tasteful but not ostentatious - it's what happens inside those walls that remains most impressive and will feel the most familiar to past patrons and performers.

“One thing that CSPS really does is bring the world closer to Eastern Iowa,” singer/songwriter Werner said. The forty-something artist who now lives in Chicago is quick to sing the praises of Legion Arts and its “wow power.”

“It makes the world small because Mel and John are so committed to bringing in first-tier performers from all over the globe - and it's just down the street,” she said.

“It's a real community treasure.”

And yet it remains one of the city's best-kept secrets.

“What's interesting to me is that it's better known nationally than it is in Cedar Rapids,” said Peggy Whitworth, longtime arts advocate who helped raise corporate funds for the renovation.

“The idea is that we have an international arts presenter now in a place people are going to go to. That some people don't know what's going on is because they're not paying attention,” said Whitworth, who has lived in Cedar Rapids since studying at Mount Mercy in the 1960s.

Others plugged into the national arts scene share in the excitement and praise for this overhaul, especially in light of the economic recession gripping the country.

“It is a bold move, but a very important move,” said MK Wegmann, 62, president and CEO of the National Performance Network based in New Orleans.

She said the work, in turn, bolsters the economic climate on all levels, from construction jobs to the creative sector and retailers.

Springboard for the Arts is another national organization whose relationship with Legion Arts is growing with the renovations. The group provides professional development and support services to artists, and will work locally through the new CSPS arts incubator and related training sessions.

“Art comes from artists, and so I think that especially recently, we're really seeing cities and communities and businesses recognize the value of having a strong creative community and all the vibrancy and vitality that brings to a community,” said Laura Zabel, 36, executive director of Springboard's regional office in St. Paul, Minn.

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