Downtown gains studio, gallery

The building at 405 W. Walnut St. soon will be home to an office, a studio and gallery space for artists' exhibits, according to Ellen Baird, who, with her husband Andrew Baird, recently purchased the property.

Ellen Baird, a painter, said the building will have her studio and an office for her husband, who is now pursuing a PhD. It also will serve as a storefront location for the Springfield Program for the Public Arts, of which Ellen Baird is director.

She said although the building won't be an art gallery with regular hours of operation, the couple plans for the site to participate in First Friday gallery walks, presented by the Springfield Area Arts Council, which showcase the works of area artists.

Baird added that it is important for the Springfield Program for the Public Arts to have a downtown presence, " ... because that's where we do all of our work, so in that instance, it's very important to be downtown. The opportunity to participate in things like the First Friday events is a huge benefit to me as an artist and whatever other artists we might find that want to do some kind of a monthly event."

The Springfield Program for the Public Arts is a community-based public art program developed under the umbrella of the Springfield Area Arts Council.

Baird said murals in the downtown area are probably the most noticeable works of the program.

Two new murals, including one on Har-Bell Athletics, 315 Park Central West, are scheduled to be painted this summer.

Baird said revitalization and beautification are the end results of the program's focus, which is to make the arts more accessible to the Springfield community.

The Bairds declined to state the purchase price for the building.

Renovations to the single-story, 1,300-square-foot building were necessary to bring it up to code, and the work should be finished in three to four weeks, Baird said.

"Then, really, we just are putting up some fresh walls and cleaning it up a lot," she added.

Baird said she and her husband both support the revitalization efforts going on in downtown Springfield.

"I guess I could've had my studio anywhere, obviously, and we looked at buildings on Commercial Street and investigated different warehouse opportunities, but my preference is definitely to be downtown," she said.