Museum building still in city plans

Director looking to permanent facility

MOSES LAKE — Still in the early stages, Terry Mulkey remains a dreamer about the day he is surrounded by a permanent museum.

The Moses Lake Museum and Art Center manager has been working with consultants and on grant applications to fund a new facility, which will be needed when the lease of the city's current building on Third Avenue comes up in a few years.

"We don't have a site exactly, but have options of several locations around City Hall, but we have not chosen a site yet," Mulkey said.

The city owns land between the police department and current City Hall, as well as land across Balsam Street, which could be utilized for the project. Mulkey is currently working with ideas that will allow the museum to functionally serve the uses it was intended. The current building was retrofitted to fit those needs, but Mulkey said was not designed as a museum or art center.

Plans for a new building would allow for more exhibit space, additional classroom and counter space, and for a theater for concerts and drama camps the MAC holds each year. A new facility would also have to have a large collection room, where artifacts would be stored when not on display.

"In a new museum we could plan how all of the areas function together," Mulkey said.

One of the pieces of a new museum complex would be the community room, a place where the city and public could hold meetings. The room is part of the present MAC, and Mulkey said the museum would always like to be part of those meetings.

Mulkey noted the museum's space doubled to the current approximately 6,000-square-foot facility when staff moved into it in 2002. Plans indicate a new museum would expand the museum to about 17,000 square feet. Cost figures for the new museum building are still being determined.

Mulkey is currently in the process of applying for a number of different grants to fund parts of the project. Because the museum houses American Indian artifacts, Mulkey said it does have to comply with a number of requirements when applying for federal grants.

Mulkey has seen an increase in programs, attendance and donations at the facility in recent years, and said now is a good time to keep those programs moving. He has previously seen a great deal of excitement and support for the museum's plans, an excitement he hopes continues.

"I'm hoping that the community is interested in seeing the culture grow in this community," Mulkey said of a larger, more permanent facility.

One idea currently being floated by city officials is the idea of a building which would share a museum facility with a new council chambers in the same structure in order to free up some much-needed office space. Mulkey said the museum is open to the idea of sharing the museum with new council chambers, but admits his planning has primarily been focused on a new museum building itself.

"We're just working with the museum element," Mulkey said. "Those are decisions that will be made by the city council in years to come."

Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski said the next big question for the city council to answer is if the city should have a standalone museum facility, or if that facility should be connected to a new council chambers building. That is a question Gavinski envisions will be presented to the council within the next month.

The city will give the grant applications a try this spring, and Gavinski said if it doesn't work they will try again in the next go-round.

"If nothing else, this is a good exercise in seeking this money for those museum and art center type of grants," Gavinski said.

But, Gavinski said, the building possibilities are still very much in the planning stages and construction could be years off in the future after projects like downtown redevelopment and an addition to the aquatic center are complete. He said it would be nice for the city to own its own building, and put those lease payments toward that building.

Mulkey would like to see a new complex begun in the next three to four years, but acknowledges the city does have a large number of projects on its plate right now. But he said when it is undertaken, the facility will remain part of the city's overall downtown plan.

"I think a museum could act as sort of a keystone, almost a landmark for this downtown area," Mulkey said, noting the facility would fit in exactly with what the city is trying to accomplish with downtown revitalization.

At this point, Mulkey said MAC staff members are focusing on designs for the functionality and interior of the building they need. The exterior design, Mulkey said, will come in later plans. And those plans will take time, each one looking different as the city goes through the planning stages.

"We're just going to take it one step at a time and do it right," Mulkey said.