T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY —Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center Board of Trustees President Karn Gregoire, center, was all smiles as she cut the ribbon at the renovated facility at 709 S. Center Street on Sunday afternoon.

The Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center (MACC), formerly known as the Fisher Community Center, took a big blow when the derecho rolled through town on Aug. 10, 2020, but just over two years later, it is back and better than ever.

Local leaders and key stakeholders in the process celebrated its reopening on Sunday afternoon with a formal ceremony that included speeches from MACC Board of Trustees President Karn Gregoire, Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs Director Chris Kramer, Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce President/CEO John Hall, Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer and MACC Director of Operations Nancy Vellinga Burke. Guided tours of the building, including the renowned Fisher Art Museum, were also offered. Several food trucks were set up outside, and local acoustic duo Bon Jecci played outside under the bandshell until weather interrupted their set.

During her remarks, Gregoire thanked all of the community members who continued to believe in the vision for the future of the MACC even after the storm and especially those who contributed financially. In all, over $6 million has been raised thus far — including about $750,000 worth of state grants — and the plan is to raise about $2.5 million more, with $500,000 for construction that has already occurred and $2 million to renovate the Martha-Ellen Tye Playhouse.

And although the work isn’t completely finished, Sunday marked a major milestone as Gregoire recalled a few of the “blessings” that helped make the renovation a reality. She offered strong praise for FEH Architects, general contractor Garling Construction and her board of trustees for seeing it through to fruition.

“A couple years ago, the leaders of Vision Marshalltown set a goal to bring back pride in Marshalltown. Today, we welcome a cornerstone that represents the pride of our community, our history and our future. Thank you for your support,” Gregoire said. “We still have a ways to go, but I know Marshalltown will get there.”

Kramer said the Department of Cultural Affairs has been “rooting” for Marshalltown amidst the setbacks of the tornado and derecho in the last five years, and she commended residents for their continued resiliency through it all.

“We’ve just tried to be there to listen, to help shape things, to bring things along and just to provide a lot of encouragement, but our mission here at the Department of Cultural Affairs is to build culturally vibrant communities that showcase the people, places and points of pride that define our state. And nobody’s doing that better than Marshalltown, Iowa, so congratulations,” she said.

Hall recounted his experiences getting involved with the project almost immediately after starting his job last summer, and his only answer was yes — to whatever Gregoire and the board of trustees needed.

“We’re very proud to have played a small part in helping the restoration come to fruition and look forward to playing a very large part in helping to make sure that the facility is utilized and utilized well, that visitors are welcome to the community and feel the impact of what this facility means to Marshalltown,” Hall said.

Greer echoed the theme of resiliency and became emotional discussing how businesses and organizations who had the choice to abandon Marshalltown after the storms have opted to stay and “do something about it” instead.

“I can’t wait to have you watch and see what doing something about it means here,” Greer said. “What’s important to me and what I’m fond of saying to people here today is (that) Marshalltown is an area where if you have a good idea and you get the right people behind it, the money will come.”

Gregoire has been involved in the process from the get go, and she was excited to show off the new and improved facility and its famous art collection, which was restored and returned in August, to the public. Even in the last few months, it’s taken several important “finishing touches” to get the building where it needed to be, and Burke has also been hard at work on other aspects of the project.

“(It’s been) day by day, inching closer. It’s been tying up a lot of loose ends — the monitors and the electronics throughout the building,” Gregoire said. “Not only have we been preparing the building, the punch list and construction wise, but Nancy, in particular, has been working very hard at developing the website, developing brochures, developing the policies for rentals. It’s all the operational stuff that she has been working really hard at doing because what is critical for this facility is that we have long-term sustainability.”

MACC Board of Trustees Member Cynthia Ragland, center, leads a tour of the Fisher Art Museum, featuring works from famous American and European painters, on Sunday afternoon.

Burke, whose father served as the center’s longtime namesake and financier Bill Fisher’s personal assistant, offered a similar assessment of the home stretch on the renovations.

“It’s been a blur, and I’ve been pretty much living here — a lot of, just, last minute details,” Burke said. “I just think it’s going to be phenomenal, and I’m so excited to have everybody see this.”

Before the derecho, Gregoire said, the building was operating on a “month-by-month survival” basis with no consistent revenue stream or long-term plan. By renting office space to multiple local organizations and opening the MACC up for event rentals with a professional catering kitchen, they hope to address that issue going forward.

“The upkeep of the facility was non-existent because there was literally no cash flow to do it,” she said.

A team of employees from Emerson, the company Bill Fisher led for decades while it still bore his name, has adopted the grounds to ensure they are kept clean and tidy.

“As pristine as the interior of this facility is, the exterior matches it, and it’s because of this team from Emerson,” Gregoire said. “What really touches my heart is that Bill Fisher, who donated this facility and donated the art, owned Fisher, and now we have the employees — and it’s now Emerson — and they have taken it upon themselves to continue to take care of what their original owner gave. How cool is that?”

With one of the most noteworthy art collections in the nation for a city the size of Marshalltown and the mid-century modern feel still intact, Gregoire envisions the MACC as “a cornerstone of the community’s pride” in the future. She has heard some of the complaints, especially from longtime Marshalltown residents, about the decision to change the name from the Fisher Community Center to the MACC. The way she sees it, however, the facility and especially the art collection will draw people from across the state and the country, and including the city in the name will help to put Marshalltown on the map.

Heidi Peglow, another member of the MACC board of trustees, believes concerns will be more likely to be assuaged once visitors have seen how Bill Fisher has been given his due, and Gregoire couldn’t agree more.

“If you said it was at the Fisher Community Center, there’s no identification of Marshalltown. We have an opportunity here to build pride in Marshalltown because we’re going to be known as the Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center. It’s putting Marshalltown on the map — locally, regionally and nationally,” Gregoire said. “That’s part of the reason why we changed the name, because this is Marshalltown… (But) we’ve got Fisher all over the place here, and we’re very, very happy with it.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.