Demolition, site work, renovation and addition to a museum in Norman, Oklahoma. Conceptual plans call for the addition of a museum.

For decades, the Firehouse Art Center has offered art classes and artist training for a wide variety of mediums--painting, sculpture, photography, music, drawing, performance art, ceramics, textiles, graphic arts and more. In the past decade, they have dramatically increased their youth programs in conjunction with the Norman Public Schools art education programs. Over the years, the building in Lions Park has served as the main campus for these programs. The building was built as a Fire Station in the 1940's--and was converted to an artist space in the 1970's, when a new fire station was built to replace the Lions Park station. Several improvements have been made to the space over the years; but with increased staffing and enrollment--the space is very under-sized. The Firehouse Board of Directors has proposed a project to raise funds for a building addition--and since the space is owned by the City of Norman, it would be a benefit to both parties if we could speed up the project by sharing the costs through the Room Tax Fund, as proposed here. The first year of funding would be used to hire a design firm to prepare construction documents for the project. A subsequent year would be used to fund the building project. Major improvements would include adding restrooms to the downstairs space, increasing the office space for staff, increasing gallery space for the artists and additional classroom space. As of March 9, 2022, this project is included City of Norman FY 2021-2025 CIP. The project is currently on an indefinite hold. Bidding for designer, contractor and firm construction start date have not been released. *Project information has been obtained through a public capital improvement plan (CIP). A CIP is a financial schedule for short- and long-range projects which is updated regularly. Information listed in the CIP often evolves based on funding availability and the project details, including timeline and value, are subject to change. The content management team will continue to pursue additional details as they become available.