After 43 years in business, the Sitka Summer Music Festival finally got a home of its own this week with the purchase of Stevenson Hall on the campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College. A party to celebrate is planned in Sitka on Saturday.
The two-story "Craftsman and Western Stick" building, one of six core structures on the old campus, was built in 1911 and is considered the only one of its kind in Alaska.
It was used as a girls' dormitory in the heyday of the college and did double duty in summers, when it provided housing for performers attending the summer festival. When the college closed in 2007, it left the festival in the position of trying to get rooms for guest artists at the height of tourist season.
The Sitka-based Alaska Arts Southeast group set about fixing up the campus and turning it into an arts center. Stevenson Hall was put up for sale in 2010. The festival was not in a position to buy it, but an "angel" bought and held the property to give the festival time to raise the funds to buy it outright, which they did with a series of grants and gifts from donors big and small.
A Jan. 20 press released announced that the purchase cost $431,000. The building is said to be in good shape, though some work is needed to level the floors and keep the roof in shape.
Festival director Zuill Bailey has called Stevenson Hall a "mother ship" for the organization, which sends performers to towns around the state and puts on the annual Alaska Airlines Autumn and Winter Classics chamber music series in Anchorage.
Though the paper is now in the festival's hands, there is still work to be done and money to be raised. We're told that there is "no insulation," that heat and electricity are inadequate. No less an issue is the lack of soundproofing, which will be an issue when several musicians are trying to rehearse different music at the same time.
With offices on the first floor and residential quarters for visiting artists upstairs, the upgraded building will also include rehearsal spaces, gathering rooms, lounge facilities, spaces for rehearsals open to the public and a kitchen to cater receptions.
"It will enable us to offer residencies throughout the year," Bailey has said. So the "Summer" in the festival's name may eventually be an anachronism.