We are grateful to the following foundations, businesses and individuals that have contributed to our Campaign thus far.

ArtCenter Manatee, founded in 1937, is the premier visual arts center in Manatee County, with significant reach into Sarasota County as well as Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties. Our visitors come from across the country, Canada and Europe. As our community has grown and changed, so has the ArtCenter, adding classes, exhibits and other programming to meet the diverse needs of the fast growing community. We have a free arts and healing program for adults with dementia and offer scholarships for children in need to our KidsArt summer camps and afterschool programs (30 to 50 a year). Our hours have been expanded to meet diverse student and instructor schedules. Our building is 67 years old and cannot handle our current capacity needs – either for space or systems.

Over the years, we have upgraded the facility but we are at the point where that is no longer possible. A new Center will allow us to meet current and future community needs by adding and expanding classrooms, galleries, the artisan market, storage and office space and providing upgraded systems: plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and audio/visual/Internet, as well as adding a community park and sculpture garden along 9th St W and 3rd Ave – newly named Avenue of the Arts.

The building will go from 10,000 SF to 28.000 SF. The park will add invaluable green space to our downtown area, leading to Riverwalk, a community park on the Manatee River, and making the area more walkable. The sculpture garden will bring art outside our walls and will be open to all. It will be a place where people can sit quietly or gather with friends and other artists. We will be able to add small scale music and performance art as well as healing elements, such as meditation and yoga to the garden.

We are embracing the concept of flinging open the doors and making art truly accessible to everyone. No barriers.

The new Center will be built on the land immediately adjacent to us on the east. Once the new Center is complete, we will raze the current building and create the community park and sculpture garden, creating a beautiful entrance into our community.

Having started life in a series of rented rooms for discussions, classes and exhibits, reaching a limited audience, the new ArtCenter will be a gathering place for artists, the community, and visitors, accessible to all. Classes in new media as well as the traditional arts, exhibits for established artists as well as students, emerging artists and experimental artists. Real storage space for display pedestals, clay and other materials. Systems that work and allow interactivity in the classrooms for audio visual presentations and Internet connectivity. And an outdoor area that respects the environment, and materials that are as earth- and people-friendly as we can make them.

The new Center will be the centerpiece in the new cultural corridor in Bradenton, providing accessibility to all, and a beautiful entrance into our community. It will be located on the newly named Avenue of the Arts (formerly 3rd Ave), or as we like to say, the intersection of arts and culture in our community, with our neighbors, the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature and the Manatee Performing Arts Center by our sides. Downtown Bradenton will be a destination for the arts.

Transforming Lives and Building Community

Board of Directors and Capital Campaign Team

Capital Campaign Brochure

Project Scope

Capital Donors

Naming Opportunities

Pledge Form

Board of Directors
Officers
Robert Moran, President
Community Volunteer, Ret Educator
Christine Meyer, Vice President
Retirement Plan Specialist, Transamerica
Bruce Body, Treasurer
1st VP, Raymond James, Community Volunteer
Carol Krah, Secretary
Community Volunteer, Artist
Member-at-large
Roberto Andreos Community Volunteer, Lawyer
Members
Carol Bintz. Ret COO of Toledo Museum of Art
James Brandys Ret Managing Director, Merrill Lynch
Ted Camp Community Volunteer, Artist
Linda Enberg Ret Hospital Administrator, Community Volunteer
Andrew Gerth Merrill Lynch Financial Advisor
Mary Hoagland Community Volunteer, Artist
Donna Morrison Artist, Instructor
Jan Pullen, Ret Head of School at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School
Daryl Shepherd VP Clerin Consulting Group, Artist
Kathy Simon-McDonald Ret Teacher, Community Volunteer, Artist
Jacquelyn Taylor Ret Business Owner, Community Volunteer, Artist

Steering Committee
Linda Enberg, Chair
Community Volunteer, Ret Hospital Administrator
Mark Barnebey Principle, Blalock Walters
Bruce Body 1st VP Raymond James
James Brandys Ret Managing Director Merrill Lynch
Byron Shinn Managing Partner, CRI
John Vita SVP, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management
Cliff Walters Principle, Blalock Walters

Executive Director
Carla Nierman

Development Coordinator
Cathy Mijou

Architects
Wannemacher Jensen

Builder
NDC Construction

Transforming Lives and Building Community

Capital Campaign Brochure

Project Scope

Capital Donors

Naming Opportunities

Pledge Form

Students must register in advance to reserve a slot. 

The Pottery Studio is available for use during regular business hours by ArtCenter Manatee members who have completed one ceramics class at ArtCenter Manatee in the past two years. Open studio is available only when classes are not in session. There is a fee for use of Open Studio if you are not in a ceramics class. Each session is up to 3 hours. A full day is up to 6 hours. If you are currently enrolled in a ceramics class you have a one week grace period after your last class date. You must sign in and out at the front desk at all times. If you do not sign in/out, it will be considered an all day open studio. You must provide your own materials. Clay may be purchased for $35 per 25 lbs. Price includes glazes and firing.

Please call before coming to ensure schedule has not changed. Fees are effective July 28, 2022.

• • • • • Single Open Studio: $15 for one, 3-hour session
        • 6-pack Open Studio: $72 for six, 3-hour sessions
        • 12-pack Open Studio: $132 for twelve, 3-hour sessions

NOTE: All Open Studio tickets must be used within one calendar year from the date of purchase.

ArtCenter Manatee’s Capital Campaign

“Arts and culture are the expressions of a community’s heart and soul.
Together they form an image that sets the city apart and creates anticipation
and excitement for the resident and traveler.”
-Americans for the Arts

ArtCenter Manatee is an 86-year old nonprofit visual arts center that cultivates a vibrant community by providing a platform for artists of all age and experience levels to create, exhibit, and market their work. We connect artists with the skills, information and services they need to make a living and a life.

We support Manatee County’s and Bradenton’s goal of becoming a destination for the arts by making art accessible to individuals and businesses through our classes, exhibits, events, and artisan gift shop.

With more than $3 billion in total direct expenditures into the Florida economy, arts and culture are sound investments in Florida’s future. We are poised to move to the next level of community service and influence by building a landmark facility to house our expanding visual arts programming to meet the needs of a fast-growing community.

ArtCenter Manatee is seeking a community investment of $13 million to build a new facility and expand and improve our programming, which will ensure the long term sustainability of the nonprofit visual arts center. Years of research show that the arts are closely linked to almost everything we say we want for our community: creative and academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.

Our goals in this campaign are to:

• Raise funds to build a landmark facility for visual arts programming that will allow us to present a rich and diverse variety of local, regional and national programming.
• Expand classrooms, exhibit space and the gift market in an environmentally
  friendly and ADA compliant facility.
• Serve as the Hub for artists and the community to gather, create, share, exhibit, market and dialogue about the arts.
• Provide adequate parking for events as well as classes and exhibits.
• Build financial assets to ensure continuity.

We’re doing it for you. Without the support of all the people who came before you, we would not be here today. Join us in supporting our building campaign to ensure we are here for future generations of artists and art lovers.

Ways you can donate. You can donate with a check, charge, cash or through PayPal. You can also donate real estate, make a stock transfer or from your Donor Advised Fund.

We’d love to share our vision. Call or email to learn more.

Carla Nierman
Executive Director
941-746-2862
acm@artcentermanatee.org

With your support, we’ll continue to Transform Lives & Build Community through Art.

Board of Directors and Capital Campaign Team

Capital Campaign Brochure

Project Scope

Capital Donors

Naming Opportunities

Pledge Form