By Jim Newell
Review Editor
For years Lake Orion students visited the Moose Tree Nature Preserve – walking the trails abounding with wildlife, learning about the natural world as part of their science lessons and visiting the famed Moose Tree.
Now, the Orion Art Center and its artists will find inspiration at the Moose Tree Nature Preserve.
Lake Orion Community Schools and the Orion Art Center are close to signing an agreement for the Art Center to lease Moose Tree center for its programs.
The Moose Tree Nature Preserve is on Clarkston Road, adjacent to Webber Elementary.
The details of the agreement have not been released other than that the Art Center would lease the Moose Tree facility for three years.
“It’s in their hands of getting their governance to finalize it,” Assistant Supt. of Business and Finance John Fitzgerald said during the board of education workshop on Feb. 22.
Fitzgerald added that the school district and the Art Center had “99 percent finalized a three-year agreement. We’re not going to get rich by any means on rental use,” Fitzgerald said. “A very nominal rent, just to keep things on the up and up…for us it’s a cost avoidance more than anything else.”
Board members supported the Art Center using the Moose Tree building for its programs. “I think it’s going to work good as a partnership,” said school board President Scott Taylor.
Superintendent Marion Ginopolis said the partnership benefits both the schools and the Art Center. “We still have to iron out the final details, but I think it’s a really nice partnership because the Art Center is educational in many aspects. It’s a nice location, a nice building and it will still offer us the opportunity to use the building for science classes and other purposes.”
In February 2016, school administration cut the naturalist position at Moose Tree as part of the first round of cost-saving cuts. The nature preserve officially closed July 1 last summer.
Alana Hart is on the Art Center Board of Directors and is excited about the opportunity for the Art Center to move many of its programs to Moose Tree.
Hart said the Art Center would likely finalize the contract this week with Lake Orion schools and hopes to have programs running “within a month.”
“It’s going to be a quick move because we want to be able to get classes started as soon as we can,” Hart said.
Planned programs include pottery classes, jewelry, photography, multiple levels of painting instruction and summer camps for kids, among other classes, although the Art Center is open to suggestions from the community on developing other programs, Hart said.
Community groups can also rent space at the facility, and the Art Center hopes to increase community involvement at the new location.
“Our goal has always been to connect with the community,” Hart said. “This is a dream come true opportunity to connect with Lake Orion schools. It’s an unbelievable opportunity for us and for the community as well. We want this to be a community art center.”
The Art Center plans on hosting an official ribbon cutting and open house later in the spring.
“There are so many communities that don’t have something like this and I think it presents so many opportunities to engage the arts as a whole and the community as well,” Hart said.
Hart also encourages people who have an interest in art to visit the Art Center and try one its programs. “People who think, that’s not me” – maybe it’s just something they haven’t tapped into, yet.”
Hart assures people that the Art Center does not have plans for any major overhauls at Moose Tree. “It’s also about preserving the community resource we have. We love it as it is and it will be the same as the community remembers it.”