The Laramie Plains Civic Center’s (LPCC) Workshop, located in the historic building’s 1920’s era former locker room, serves as a hub for creative work, collaboration, and learning around the arts. This space will soon be able to serve the arts community better due in part to a grant received from the Wyoming Community Foundation (WCF) this December.
Since its first century as a school, the LPCC’s structure has housed creativity as an avenue for growth and connection. Like any school, the facility nurtured growing minds in science, math, and history, alongside music, art, and recreational activities. Today, LPCC, a stand-alone nonprofit organization, offers diverse learning and growth opportunities. Funding from WCF will support the first phase of overhauling a previous storage space to handle the materials and needs of those working with paints, inks, and other art materials. The project includes the installation of a stainless steel sink with washboard, faucet, and sand trap, as well as the later removal of defunct fixtures to allow for communal storage of materials and works in progress.
“This initial investment in the plumbing infrastructure is a crucial step in developing this space to serve Laramie’s creatives best,” LPCC Executive Director Jessica Brauer said. “For many years, the resilient artists of this building have made do with the insufficient amenities, and to move forward on these upgrades is long overdue.”
In 2014, the local artist group Wyoming Art Party rehabilitated the LPCC Workshop as a communal art-making space for creative workshops, educational programming, and opportunities for civic engagement. Their investment in the space solidified LPCC as a home for artists, and this draw continues to grow as Wyoming looks to arts and culture as an asset for the state.
In addition to WCF’s grant funds, profits from the Artists Sunday Market held Thanksgiving weekend and in-kind donations from local artists will be used to continue this rehabilitation project.
“This space is a unique asset in the building and the community at large.” Brauer said, “WCF’s support is a gift to the work we’re doing to preserve and sustain this institution for years to come.”
