The building that houses the Bowman Arts Centre is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, but instead of celebrating, the staff are getting ready to move out of its current location.

“There’s no special celebrations or anything happening,” says Darcy Logan, curator of the Bowman Arts Centre. “We’re actually gearing up for a move out of this building.”

The new Community Arts Centre is currently being built downtown, where the IGA building used to be.
“Next year all of our programming will be moving out of the existing building and over to the new one,” says Logan.
The current centre still has programs going on and Logan is hoping to keep all of them going during the move.
“There won’t be that long of an interruption in what we do,” he says.
The new building will supply the arts centre with not only a lot more space but also opportunities for people who haven’t been able to engage with the programs they offer.
“There will be a lot of room for everybody to participate in the building,” says Logan. “There’s going to be communal print making studies, communal 2D painting studios, communal sculpture studios and communal textile studios.”
Though moving to a bigger space has its positives, the old building will still be missed.
“I’ll miss the history and the character and the architecture of the building,” says Logan. “It served the community well since the 1960s. It’s just not big enough.”
The Bowman Arts Centre won’t be moving to the new centre until early 2013. For more information about the centre and the programs the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge offer you can visit http://www.communityartscentre.org.