Dahmen Barn receives $362,300 grant

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | May 22, 20130

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Barn

The Uniontown Community Development Association has received its biggest grant yet for the Dahmen Barn.

ArtPlace America announced Monday that the UCDA will receive $362,300 to complete the expansion of the Dahmen Barn, which will include tearing down the loafing shed and building a new one.

The project to expand the center was chosen from more than 1,200 applications nationwide as an exceptional example of creative placemaking.

“We’re really excited,” said Leslee Miller, manager for the Dahmen Barn. “This has shortened up our long-term plan.”

Miller, also a barn board member, said the money will be used to go ahead with work that the committee had recently put on hold.

In the past year, the 30 X 60 foot old loafing shed next to the barn was cleaned out in preparation for it to be made into a space for classes, a kitchen and event space. However, two weeks ago, Miller said, organizers found that the loafing shed’s structure had sustained more rot than they had anticipated and that put the project on hold.

“Now we’ll be able to do what we were going to in Phase One but in an expanded footprint,” Miller said.

Phase One of the loafing shed plan included a concrete slab for a floor, a classroom module, two restrooms and a kitchen. Phase Two would have been an addition to the west side of the shed.

Now, with the ArtPlace grant, Miller indicated that the shed will be dismantled and the boards used in a whole new structure, built to have an old, indigenous look.

“It needs to fit with the barn,” she said. “It’s going to look like it belongs.”

She said the UCDA hopes to send out requests for qualifications to architects for the new shed in early June.

From there, they hope to send it out to bid this winter and begin construction next spring.

“We’ve spent the last couple years really, really thinking about what we want,” she said. “So design and construction should be smooth.”

ArtPlace America is a collaboration of national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies committed to accelerating creative placemaking – using art to revitalize communities. ArtPlace America has awarded a total of $42.1 million in 134 grants to 124 projects in 79 communities and a statewide project in Connecticut.

As part of the grant award process, a representative from ArtPlace visited Uniontown and the Dahmen Barn in February.

The grant application was written by UCDA president Dale Miller.

The 54 organizations that received ArtPlace grants were selected from more than 1,200 applications. Inquiries came from all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia. Grant amounts range from $750,000 to $33,000.