A Waverly Shell Rock grad has expressed his desire to turn West Cedar Elementary into a community arts center, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. Matt Hibbard, who graduated in 1992, says his dream is to have programs such as painting, pottery, fiber arts, music recording, and cooking housed in the soon-to-close school. In Hibbard’s plan the gym and cafeteria would become a performance hall, the media center would be an art gallery, classrooms would be community meeting rooms, green room for performers, an apartment for an artist-in-residence and places to teach different art forms. He also could rent out space for things such as a dance studio. The current offices would become a home for arts-related nonprofits. The proposals for the sale and disposal of West Cedar and Carey schools were due by yesterday. Hibbard says he submitted a bid of $5,000 with the hope that the Board of Education would look past the dollar amount and see the future of his bid. Hibbard has a partner in this endeavor in Melissa Barber. She says she joined because Waverly has many sports and athletic opportunities but is lacking in the arts. Hibbard says he foresees his plan making income from people renting rooms for classes, artists displaying art in the gallery and organizations holding performances or gatherings, but he would like to balance that out with free programming.
