A project several years in the making is now open to the public just south of downtown. Jeff Day is a UNL College of Architecture faculty member and says students designed and remodeled the Art Chapel at 13th and ‘F’ Street.
“Art classes happen here, art openings where people from the community are displaying their work, public meetings, worship events, a whole range of activities occur in this building.” Day says students transformed a 150-year-old chapel at the F Street Neighborhood Church into a vibrant community arts center.
The 1873 building served as one of Lincoln’s earlies churches and has gone through several iterations before becoming a community space. Fellow faculty member Jason Griffiths tells KLIN News this is a project they began working on in 2019.
“We are working hard to serve this community and find ways in which architecture can help rehabilitate members of the community who may be suffering from substance abuse disorder, social problems,” Griffiths says. “We feel very strongly that architecture can play a role in helping improve the community.”
Day says students designed and installed new cabinetry and shelving and built the tables that include outlets to plug in equipment like sewing machines and other tools. He also tells KLIN News says they created a sliding wall that opens to create an indoor-outdoor space for events.
He says the goal was to produce a flexible environment that allows for different artistic expression, classes and gallery events.
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