By CRISTINA JANNEY and GERARD WELLBROCK
Hays Post
The Hays Arts Center has closed its downtown location for the rest of the 2026 as it enters phase two of its renovation project.
"We're in that last half, that last stretch of our renovation," Brittney Squire, Hays Arts Council board president, said. "We just hope people will be patient with us while our facilities are offline.
"But it's exciting because when they come, when we invite people back in, when they come back in the space, it's going to be a completely different space. People won't even recognize it."
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"The impetus of this project was to connect those two spaces so that it appeared to be and functionally worked like one seamless space under one roof where you could walk from one side of the gallery all the way through to Main Street," Squire said.
Center staff and volunteers hope the connection will allow the council to host more events.
The two building also needed functional updates to HVAC and plumbing, she said.
"'It's really about creating a brand new, beautiful space, seamless, open, allowing us an opportunity to do lots of different and new programs, but also correcting all those things that come up with an old historic building," Squire said.
The target completion date is spring 2027. The art council hopes to have the center open in the time for the spring art walk in April.
The art center is in a temporary location at the Hadley Center, 205 E. Seventh, Suite 111. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday Special holiday hours will be offered.
Block Party
The council is sponsoring the 2nd-Annual Block Party on the Bricks, a downtown celebration filled with live music, art demonstrations and local food and drinks.
"It's a great party. We take over 11th Street out there between Main and Oak, and we've got drink vendors and food vendors. We bring out a bunch of artists to do demonstrations of their art right there on the street," Squire said.
Some of the demonstrators will include a painter, blacksmith, potter's wheel and balloon artist.
"It's about getting to see not just the finished art, which is what people see in our gift shop and in our exhibits, but seeing how does the art actually get made, and really appreciating that process of of art and how how we get it in our spaces and and what it looks like at the end," Squire said.
The Block Party will be 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. The fundraiser brings the community together while supporting the programs and mission of the Hays Arts Council.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. Admission for youth 12 and younger is free.
The council is still taking donations for the renovation project, but the Block Party will support council programs.
Click here to buy tickets or sign up to volunteer.
The council is also taking submissions for the 5-State Photography Exhibition. The deadline is Oct. 23.
Submissions must come from Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri or Colorado. The exhibit will be featured at the Hays Public Library during the Winter Art Walk.