FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sitka Music Festival Closes Deal on Home

By Sentinel Staff

The Sitka Summer Music Festival has announced that it has raised the money to purchase Stevenson Hall as its headquarters on the historic Sheldon Jackson College campus.

Stevenson Hall. (Sentinel Photo)

Kayla Boettcher, SSMF executive director, said the $431,000 deal closes this week, giving the festival ownership of a permanent home for the first time in its 43-year history.

“This is huge for us, but it’s also important for the entire state of Alaska,” Boettcher said in the announcement. Stevenson Hall, a two-story shingle-sided building just off Jeff Davis Street, is one of the core buildings of the Sheldon Jackson School National Historic Landmark.  

Boettcher said the path to buying Stevenson Hall began four years ago. The building had been vacant since Sheldon Jackson College closed its doors in 2007. The Festival would have liked to buy the building, but when SJ put it up for sale in 2010 the organization was not in position to buy. 

“Fortunately, a friend of the festival stepped forward and bought the building, then held onto it until we could raise the funds,” Boettcher said. “We’re thrilled to tell you we’ve made our goal.”

She thanked the following organizations and festival supporters including:

– The Murdock Charitable Trust ($262,000)

– An anonymous donor ($124,000)

–The Hames Family of Sitka ($25,000)

–Sharon Davies of Anchorage ($100,000)

–Don Surgeon and Galen Paine, of Sitka ($15,000)

Boettcher said there were also 75 other donors who “dropped off checks, stuffed cash in jars and otherwise made donations to our cause.”

Jim Steffen, co-chairman of the festival building committee, said this has been a long time coming.

“It doesn’t feel that fast to us – we’ve been developing the capacity to do a capital campaign for a while,” he said. “The work is paying off – we’re learning what it takes to ask for financial support. We got some great support, several nice donations from Anchorage and lots of smaller donations, and of course, Zuill Bailey (artistic director) got us to go, with a pledge from one of his strong supporters.”

The money raised for purchasing the building will also help make immediate improvements to the structure, including leveling the floors and making short-term patches to the roof. SSMF also received $25,000 from the National Park Service, with the assistance of the State of Alaska’s Office of History and Archeology in the state Department of Natural Resources. 

“These funds are designated to help with leveling the floor and returning the building to plumb condition,” she said.

Steffen said getting ownership of the building will help with future fundraising for improvements, since many organizations and individuals are hesitant to invest when the organization does not own the building.

“We feel this is a pretty big milestone,” he said. “We feel we have a little credibility. Before, we were occupying a building that was a borrowed building and trying to make it our own.”

He said since he got on the board six years ago, one of his goals was to find a home for the festival.

“I knew it helped Raven Radio,” said Steffen, speaking of the public radio station’s purchase of its own studio building, the Cable House, from AT&T. Steffen is a former board president of KCAW as well as SSMF.

“I felt like it gave Raven stability, and I felt the festival needed that, too. But we didn’t really have any money.”

When the buildings on the SJ campus went up for sale, he and other board members saw an opportunity.

Steffen said he’s grateful to those who helped reach the goal of purchasing the building by January 2015. 

“So many people helped make it happen,” he said.

Boettcher added today that the fundraising effort and move to purchase the building also took place during a busy transition time for the festival, as SSMF founder Paul Rosenthal stepped down after 40 years, and Zuill Bailey took over as artistic director.

“It’s been a remarkable four years since we started this journey,” Boettcher told the Sentinel. “It’s so much more to celebrate.”

Boettcher said purchasing the building will make a big difference to the future of the festival.

“Throughout the Sitka Summer Music Festival’s history, world-class musicians have come to Sitka to perform throughout the month of June,” Boettcher said. “Through the years, they had been staying at Stevenson Hall, but when Sheldon Jackson College closed in 2007, the festival was forced to leave its home, and find other accommodations for its artists and staff. The cost of finding lodging for visiting musicians during Sitka’s busy summer visitor season was expensive, and it took away from our mission.”

She said the purchase of the building will give the festival a permanent home that will also help the organization in its mission of providing top-caliber music across the state.

“Stevenson Hall will become a year-round center for classical music,” Boettcher said. “Having full control of the building will let us build our educational outreach programs, and host more artists throughout the year. Those programs and artists end up in Anchorage, Kotzebue, Bethel, Unalaska, Juneau, Talkeetna and more than 30 communities across the state. In other words, owning Stevenson Hall will let us create a home base to share the music we love with the state we love. The results of buying this one building in Sitka will be heard – quite literally – statewide.”

She said SSMF is not done yet, and will continue to raise money to upgrade and improve the building.

 

“Right now, there’s no insulation, inadequate heat and electricity, and absolutely no sound proofing (which is) important to our musicians who often rehearse simultaneously,” Boettcher said. “Besides making the building more comfortable and useful to our artists and staff, we want to create a welcoming public space for visitors to enjoy our music and our company. We’re excited not only to keep this historic building alive, but also to transform it into an outstanding center for musicians and classical music.”

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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