USDA and Travel Nevada Help Carson Valley Arts Center Realize Their Vision for the Future

In a small Northern Nevada town where history and art intertwine and the Sierra Nevada Mountains tower along the valley's western edge, dreams of transforming an old lumber yard into a flourishing cultural hub are finally becoming a reality. To celebrate, USDA Deputy Secretary Lillian Salerno visited the Carson Valley Arts Center in Minden last week to see firsthand the plans for a project that has been decades in the making. 

As part of a three-day Nevada tour, Salerno helped celebrate a recently awarded $15,000 Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) to assist with the construction and modernization of the facility. USDA Rural Development Nevada State Director Lucas Ingvoldstad, Alaska RD Director Julia Hnilikca, and Carson City USDA loan officer Debra Cummins, also came to tour the facility and celebrate the newly received funding. Left: Lucas Ingvoldstad, Deputy Secretary Lillian Salerno, Julia Hnilikca, Debra Cummins, and CVAC Board President Brian Fitzgerald. Photo courtesy of USDA.

The long-held desire of the CVAC has been to build an arts center that can fully accommodate the performing arts, as well as their vast array of visual art displays and exhibits. Currently, concerts and theater productions are held at the nearby CVIC Hall, a community space that, while functional, lacks the dedicated infrastructure for performing arts. 

The arts center, which has been championed by Board President Brian Fitzgerald and Executive Director Sharon Schlegel for over 20 years, also recently secured a significant $631,000 grant from Travel Nevada. This grant is part of an expansive effort to position the Minden-Gardnerville area as a key destination in Northern Nevada's cultural corridor, which stretches through Virginia and Carson Cities and now into Douglas County.

"We've been around for 20 years, and our purpose from the start was to find a home for the arts," Fitzgerald said. "We wanted something in town that could help revitalize the downtown corridor—not just a gallery or an incubator for arts organizations, but an actual venue for the performing arts."

The iconic Copeland Lumber Building dates back to 1908 and is primarily an underutilized warehouse, offering only a small area of usable gallery and shop space. The grant funds will help transform the warehouse into a stage with an auditorium with 350 seating capacity. But no run-of-the-mill renovation will do. Pictured right, artists rendering of stage and theater seating . 

According to Fitzgerald, one of the center's primary goals is to preserve the building's unique architectural features. The wooden trusses spanning 100 feet, which were trucked in from a closing Reno car dealership in the 1950s, will soon be more than an impressive structural element hidden away in the unadorned warehouse portion of the building. 

"The trusses, which are over 100 years old, are a key feature we're committed to maintaining as part of our theater design," Fitzgerald said. "With advancements in sound and lighting, we believe we can make this a state-of-the-art facility while preserving its historical integrity." Below: Secretary Salerno admires the1950s era original warehouse trusses. Photo courtesy of USDA. 

Nevada State Historic Register designated the structure as a historic building in 2022, opening the door to additional renovation funding. "Our vision is to still maintain the trusses to, to maintain the shape that is that people have become so accustomed to for this particular building.," Fitzgerald explained. With its architectural uniqueness and rich history of serving the Minden and Gardnerville communities, the Copeland Lumber Building is set to lead the area into a new era of arts and culture.

In addition to visual arts, the center plays a vital role in supporting performing arts and several youth programs. "We host four theater productions and six concerts a year," Fitzgerald explained. "We're also heavily involved in youth arts education, providing programs in local schools and scholarships for students and teachers." Fitzgerald and Schlegel are most excited about including a full-stage 350-seat auditorium and additional spaces to support concerts and other stage productions. Once the renovations are complete, CVAC will host all performances under one roof alongside the visual art displays and the local artisan shop. 

The Travel Nevada cultural corridor initiative is already increasing the visibility of the arts in the region. "This has opened up dialogue and created awareness, allowing us to tap into the region's incredible talent pool," Fitzgerald said. The highly anticipated upcoming celebration is the Day of the Dead Festival at Heritage Park in Gardnerville on October 4, a joint event with Douglas County and Main Street Gardnerville, is just one such event.

Fitzgerald and Schlegel remain optimistic about the future despite early challenges, including an unsuccessful ballot initiative to establish a community and performing arts center. "We've persevered through recessions and COVID," Fitzgerald said. "Now, we finally have the attention of policymakers, and we're forging ahead."

USDA Rural Development Nevada State Director Lucas Ingvoldstad emphasized the importance of the RBDG, noting it is rarely designated to projects like this one. "Typically, our business programs don't focus on arts, so this is a special case," he said. "It's an awesome program under our business development initiatives, and we're excited to see it contribute to the economic and cultural growth of this area."

The center's strategic location, bordering Minden and Gardnerville, will soon be a focal point for the arts, contributing to the area's role in Northern Nevada's growing cultural corridor while offering economic benefits. "The arts center will create a hub of activity," Fitzgerald said. "There's potential to help local mom-and-pop shops along the street. We've already seen a new brewery open across the street, and we think there's so much more that can happen here."

The Travel Nevada grant and the arts center's addition to the cultural corridor have added even more momentum. "We're bringing our community together and showing policymakers that we're going to put this area on the map," Fitzgerald said. "This has been a passion for Sharon and me for 20 years, and now we're getting a lot more people behind it."

To learn more, visit www.cvartscouncil.com. Or better yet, visit them and support the renovation of the historic Copland Lumber Building. Above right, CVAC Board President Brian Fitzgerald.