ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Liberal’s Baker Arts Center will soon have a digital art lab available for patrons’ use.
Last Thursday, financing for the project was finalized when Kansas Tourism provided Baker with one of its Tourism Attraction Development Grants in the amount of $28,000.
Tourism Director Bridgette Jobe said the grant is designed to help new attractions in the state or to help expand existing attractions.
“We want to bring more visitors to the state, more to Liberal,” she said. “These are dollars that are set aside where we can help these projects get started.”
Jobe said the grant is quite a competitive grant, and Kansas Tourism receives many applications throughout the year.
“We go through, and we have to grade each one of them,” she said. “We have to look at the application that’s submitted, and we rank them. We have a committee who does that. We talk with the secretary of commerce, our lieutenant governor, and we have to sit down and sort through which ones make the most sense. We want to make sure we are getting funds to all parts of the state, and we want to make sure we are funding the best projects we can.”
Kansas 38th District Senator Ron Ryckman was on hand for Thursday’s check presentation, and Jobe praised the work he and other lawmakers have done to make project funding possible.
“These grants don’t happen without our legislators understanding the value of this, and this grant is actually set out in statute,” she said. “We were to give this grant every year, but it had not been funded for years.”
Jobe said money such as that presented to Baker is sorely needed, as is the funding to provide that money, and now, Kansas Tourism will be able to give millions of dollars a year for the grants.
“We know it makes a difference,” she said. “It’s really important. We love what you’re doing. Once you get everything up and going, we would love to come back and do a ribbon cutting.”
Naturally, Baker Arts Director Brittyn Heronemus was excited to receive the grant.
“If there was a word beyond grateful, I would use that, but I’m extremely grateful for this opportunity and for the opportunities we’re going to provide,” she said.
Heronemus said the digital art lab will feature drawing stations equipped with iPads, tablets and pencils, offering hands-on opportunities for adults and young students to explore the world of digital art and technology.
“The students or anyone who comes in to use the digital art lab will be able to draw and create digital art and help with marketing,” she said. “We can use apps like Procreate or other foundations that create those they can draw. It’s drawing, but on an iPad.”
Often, Baker Arts hosts the annual Western Kansas Scholastic Arts exhibit, and Heronemus said in recent years, around 50 to 60 percent of the art in the exhibit is digital.
“We’re going to be hooking up with the local high schools, the local middle schools to help those students have access to creating projects outside of their school hours,” she said.
Heronemus said the digital art lab will have four adult stations and two stations for students. She added in today’s world of technology, such a lab is needed.
“A lot of people prefer digital art and digital drawings because you can take it on the go,” she said. “You can do it anywhere you’re at. You already have a phone or a tablet with you. You can pretty much do it anywhere in the day and age we’re in, but the work from the students in our area being mostly digital is what really inspired us to do this. They’re already in that realm. They’re already learning those things, so why not provide that addition to them?”
Heronemus said the digital art lab should be ready for use by spring 2025.
“Now that we’ve finally reached the total cap for the project, we’re able to start doing some of the moving around,” she said. “We’re going to have to make some room upstairs, but we hope to have this up as soon as February or March.”
