KALICO closing studio while undergoing restructuring

KALICO Art Center announced Tuesday that it will be relinquishing its current location on Main Street after July and lay off its staff of four by next week.

The art center opened its doors in downtown Kalispell in January 2020.

“As a non-profit, the majority of our funding comes from grants, donations and sponsorships, and while we are so thankful for each person and organization that has shown us support, we have not received several of the grants we were counting on this year,” Marketing Manager Jessy Hanson said in a release.

In the two and a half years since it opened KALICO quickly established itself as a community art center, sponsoring such successful projects as Tunnel Vision, in which artists painted the tunnels of the Rails to Trail pedestrian and bicycle paths, the downtown Traffic Signal Box art project, and the Downtown Kalispell Art Mural Project.

KALICO board chair and co-founder Alisha Shilling said that, while they were able to secure CARES Act funding and a low-interest Small Business Association loan during the pandemic, the nonprofit did not qualify for Paycheck Protection Program money and other funding fell through.

“We’re still recovering from the pandemic and not getting all the funds we applied for,” Shilling said, acknowledging that grants for nonprofits are a highly competitive market.

“We had to pay rent on a closed building when we opened in 2020,” Shilling said. “The board made the decision to go ahead with our decision to open. Unfortunately, it just did not give us the foundation we needed to establish ourselves well in the downtown area.”

In 2020 the center was able to offer digital classes, handed out art packets and allowed some walk-in distance learning classes. Its clay studio program has continued to grow, from three pottery wheels to eight. The program has a growing membership, many who sell their products at the center.

Founded by Shilling, her husband and sister-in-law in summer 2019 under the Flathead Community Foundation with considerable support from local artist Marshall and wife Jackie Noice, Shilling says the bigger vision for KALICO was to support downtown and give people other things to do.

“Downtown is where we always wanted to be,” Shilling said.

Hanson said KALICO has been active in the community and established itself as the “hub for public art, connection and creativity.”

“While this may seem like the end, we choose to use this as a pause to evaluate what has made us successful as an organization and what areas could be improved upon,” Hanson said in the release. “We choose to see this as an opportunity to restructure our model of operation and staffing hierarchy so that we can emerge stronger and more cohesive to better serve our community through the arts.”

“Art can reawaken a desire for people to use their hands as an innovative tool to inspire them,” Shilling said. “Art, whether consciously or subconsciously, encourages us to engage with our environment.”

“Art is vital to a thriving community and breaks down barriers like nothing else, providing bridges of connection between all people,” Hanson stated.

KALICO PLANS to continue its summer camps, partnerships and other programming it has already committed to, including Drink’n Draw and Life Drawing classes at local businesses or outside depending on weather, as well as its partnership with the Hockaday for the “Make with Me” toddler program for July and August.

The center will remain open until Aug. 15. While the entire staff has been laid off, Shilling says some of them will be asked to do contracted work.

“We enter this new season with the hope that the financial breathing room this will create will offer new insight into our next steps,” Shilling said. “We need to figure out how to restructure and find new revenue streams.”

The board is actively seeking other potential locations and partners. She says the current building owners have been helpful and they were fortunate to pay rent on a month to month basis, but rent has been a big hurdle.

“We’re committed to not dissolving and to finding a place we can afford,” Shilling said. “For now, we will exist without walls while we reevaluate and reimagine a space that would better suit us.”

KALICO Art Center, at 149 S. Main St., will be open for patrons to come in and pick up their projects, shop its consignment shop, view the current exhibition, or paint pottery on Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays from 5 to 9 p.m. through July.

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