How The Daniel Building Is Becoming St. Cloud's Arts Hub

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- It may be summer, but a school in downtown St. Cloud isn't taking a break.

The Wirth Center for the Performing Arts has been hard at work moving into its brand-new home, the historic Daniel Building on 7th Avenue.

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The vision is to eventually fill all four floors with a variety of arts and artists for a community arts center.

Executive Director James Newman says they want the building to be a creative hub for downtown St. Cloud, with art on display everywhere and music being performed all the time.

The Wirth Center wants it to be a hang-out space for people of all ages and generations.

For now, it's still being called the Historic Daniel Building, but eventually they'll rebrand it with a new name that is more fitting for its purpose now.

The total investment is over $3 million. So far, they've raised over $1.7 million toward their goal.

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If you want to see it for yourself, the Wirth Center will be open for tours this Friday during the Downtown Art Crawl.

Third Floor Space

The Wirth Center occupies the third floor of the building. A law office was previously in that space, so most of the rooms were move-in ready. It is slightly bigger than the space they had before.

Newman has his office on that floor. There are rooms for lessons in piano, guitar, singing, and a variety of other music classes. They've also added a remote studio for online learning and a piano lab, which they've never had before.

The floor also has a former law library, which the Wirth Center is transforming into a new listening library. They got music books donated to them from the Great River Regional Library, some sheet music, and other music items.

The third floor didn't have a bathroom, so that was added as well.

First Floor Space

The main level of the public will be the most public-facing. It is partly done with a new dance studio in the back that features a brick wall, high ceilings, and two new garage doors that open up. The Wirth Center has had a dance program for decades.

There's also a flexible use space for Marimas and other programs.

They have also installed four single-use bathrooms on the main floor.

About two-thirds of the space is still unfinished. It will become a venue for performances, recitals, and overflow for the B. Side Indie Music Cafe. It will fit about 100 people at a time, with a large stage across the front of the room.

The Wirth Center needs to raise about half a million dollars to finish that part of the renovation project.

Basement Space

The basement of the building is technically the third phase, although they are already using it as a working space now. They have a few classes down there, and some of the rock bands use it as a practice area. Newman says the basement won't change much other than to add some finishing touches.

He says they'd like to raise about a quarter of a million dollars to finish the basement.

Second Floor Space

The second floor is the fourth and final phase of their overall plan. The Wirth Center wants that to be a creative gathering space for visual artists. They have eight office spaces available to lease out, with three of those already spoken for.