Hockaday looking to expand

A March 10 public hearing has been set on whether to rezone land owned by the Hockaday Museum of Art, which plans to expand its building.

The Kalispell Planning Board then will make a recommendation on whether four lots on Second Avenue East owned by the Hockaday should be rezoned from residential use to public use.

Right now, the Hockaday Museum is on the northernmost two lots on the west side of Second Avenue East between Third and Fourth Streets East.

The museum also owns two lots immediately to immediate south, which currently hold houses.

The 9,600-square-foot Hockaday Museum is not big enough to display a huge segment of its Montana and American Indian paintings, sculptures, pottery and other items.

"The Hockaday Museum has totally outgrown the facility we have right now," museum board president Fred Leistiko said.

Consequently, it wants to tear down the two houses to build more museum space and a parking lot.

Leistiko estimated that the expanded museum would have more than twice the space of the current one.

The expansion's estimated cost is $5.6 million.

The city of Kalispell is making a $5.6 million request for federal stimulus money to expand the museum. However, the museum is not assuming the federal money will materialize.

The Hockaday has raised roughly $500,000 so far. But it has not begun intense fundraising yet, Leistiko said.

The museum's tentative timetable calls for the two houses to be demolished, the parking lot to be built, and some landscaping -ncluding a possible gazebo -to be tackled on the south side of the current museum building this year.

The landscaping and gazebo are placeholder measures until money is raised to expand the museum, with Leistiko speculating the new construction might begin in possibly three years.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com