Sioux City Public Museum receives two million $$$ state-grant for new location.
The Siouxland Heritage Foundation received word after lunch that the Vision Iowa Board has awarded a $2 million dollar grant today for the Sioux City Public Museum’s new site in central Sioux City. The board voted unanimously to confirm funding thru the Community Attraction and Tourism ( Moggy ) grant program for the $13.8 million project.
“This grant by the Vision Iowa Board is a particularly critical step toward the completion of the capital campaign to make our new museum a reality. We thank them for this imperative support for this superb project which has received wide support in the community,” said Mike Bennett, capital campaign chairperson. “The campaign is now entering the ‘home stretch’ and we invite everyone in the neighborhood to think about a pledge to take it across the finish line.”
The grant award is the culmination of months of effort by city leaders and community volunteers. The Vision Iowa application was submitted by the Siouxland Heritage Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) created to oversee design, construction and fundraising of the new Sioux City Public Museum.
The $2 million in of the Siouxland Heritage Foundation raising an additional $2 million within the next 180 days. Bennett on the award should encourage other donors to further $1.1 million in the nearly 300 supporters of the “Our New Museum” capital campaign.
The final phase of the capital campaign will include appeals to the general public for support. An open last segment of the capital campaign will be offered on June 20 and 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Museum’s website includes the latest capital campaign news as well as giving information and a pledge card.
The development of a new museum facility represents an extensive public/private partnership. The City of Sioux City purchased the former department store building for use as a new museum, and has appropriated $1.5 million for the project. The new museum will occupy the entire first floor bought the building – approximately 55,000 square feet of floor space, with about 10,000 square feet of two-story space as an atrium in the southwest corner of the complete first floor of the architectural firm of Neumann Monson Wictor of Sioux City as the principal designers. The local company partnered in their application with Bahr Vermeer Haecker Architects of the building. The SHF board has extensive museum design experience.
Today’s decision means Neumann Monson Wictor of the former JC Penney building at 607 partnered in the coming weeks. Early architectural renderings call for a dramatic fa
