One hundred and forty-five dollars is a lot of money, but more was at stake for the Warwick Center of the Arts last year. The very future of the center founded by the Warwick Junior Women’s Club in 1974 as the Warwick Museum was on the line when the administration held up renewal of the center’s lease of the Kentish Armory two doors down from City Hall on Post Road.

The armory has been the home of the center since 1997. The following year, the city and the center signed a 10-year lease for the property that was renewed in 2008 for another ten years. The center took on the responsibility of maintaining the armory and grounds as well as insurance and utilities in return for a one dollar a year payment. Through fund raising and grants, the armory was transformed into a gallery and open space used for receptions, performances and community meetings, an office and basement classrooms used for art classes.

In 2018 the Champlin Foundation granted the center’s $145,000 grant application to replace rooting wood trim along the roofline, reconfigure the building entrance to eliminate a steep climb and address other issues inhibiting access. A condition of the grant was that the center have a lease.

What seemed like a perfunctory renewal, however, failed to happen. Renewal of the lease never reached the City Council while Joseph J. Solomon was Council President and once he became mayor in the spring of 2018 he had other suggestions for the armory. He said he wanted to keep options open for the relocation of municipal offices that were hastily moved to the former Greene School when a burst frozen pipe forced the closure of the City Annex. Mayor Solomon was made aware the center could lose the grant if it failed to have a lease within two years, yet he talked about moving personnel offices to the armory. When personnel offices were relocated to the former Randall Holden School in Hoxsie that was no longer an issue. Solomon then questioned the amount of the lease, suggesting that payment should be in keeping with are rentals. There was no movement. It appeared the center would lose the grant to improve a building that is owned by the city.

Danielle Salisbury, Center Director, said that prior to the 2020 elections the center met with the foundation and was granted an extension of the two-year requirement to this January if Solomon was reelected and to March should Frank Picozzi win.

It doesn’t appear it will take that long to sort out.

Within a couple of days of taking office, Picozzi and members of his staff visited the center and met with Salisbury. He saw no issue with renewing the lease for another ten years and passed it along to the City Solicitor for review. Ward 7 Councilman Steve McAllister docketed the lease for City Council action in February.

Salisbury said she was impressed by how direct and down to earth Picozzi was.

“He asked do you see any reason to object to this (the lease),” Salisbury recalls. She couldn’t think of an objection.

Now if sustaining operations in a pandemic were only as simple.

“We’re going month to month. We’re doing okay because of grants,” she said. The center closed during the shutdown but with the reopening, the center turned to online classes. Summer camp was downsized to a third of its capacity, resulting in a corresponding decline in camp revenues. Grants helping to sustain operations and keep the lights on have come from the Rhode Island Council on the Arts and Rhode Island Commerce.

Grants will be used to underwrite the cost of instructional videos on cartoon drawing by Jerry Shippee that will be featured for free on the center’s YouTube channel.

“It will be Saturday morning cartoons,” says Salisbury. Details are available on the center’s website.

The next upcoming show is the annual members exhibit that will take place from Feb. 6 through March 13. The center is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Salisbury said the center will need to obtain bids and Historic District approval before construction on improvements made possible by the Champlin Foundation commence.