The grant, funded by the New York State Council on the Arts’ capital projects fund, comes as the LPCA prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary in July.

The LPCA campus has two facilities at 17 Algonquin Drive — the annex building and the theater and gallery, which are also celebrating their 50th birthday, despite being built with a lifespan of 40 years.

“We have used them, we have loved them, and now we’ve almost loved them to death,” LPCA Executive Director James Lemons said on Monday, June 12.

Though the new building’s exact cost, contents and layout have yet to be determined, Lemons anticipates a modernized theater, art gallery and classrooms for the LPCA’s educational programming to be part of the final plans. But first, the LPCA plans to seek input from community members, stakeholders and LPCA partners to understand how the new facility might best serve the community, according to Lemons.

“We want to make sure that whatever we plan in this process will serve the community for another 50-plus years,” Lemons said.

He hopes that construction could begin as soon as the spring or summer of 2024 — “depending on when the ground thaws” — and be completed by 2026.

The possibility of a new arts facility came to the forefront of the LPCA’s strategic planning process last year as LPCA staff, board members and community stakeholders worked to identify a five-year plan for the organization. They found that the organization’s programmatic growth is often hampered by space limitations — kids’ and adults’ classes build wait lists due to tight class spaces — and the theater’s aging technical system has prevented the LPCA from bringing in bigger, more advanced artists to its stage. The organization performed a feasibility study for the capital project and submitted its grant application this past January.

While the new facility will replace the LPCA’s annex, the organization is planning to keep its current theater and gallery building. While the new arts facility is being constructed, the LPCA will temporarily relocate all of its programming and activities from the annex to the theater and gallery building.

The annex also houses LPCA administrative staff and some tenants from other organizations, including Head Start Lake Placid, the Lake Placid-North Elba Historical Society and Adirondack Film. Alison Simcox, the LPCA’s director of communications, said the LPCA is still in the process of nailing down where LPCA staff and tenants will be relocated during construction. She said that the LPCA wants to carve out space for these tenants in the new facility, so their space needs will be considered in the new center’s design phase.

The Lake Placid Sinfonietta office is located in the theater building, but the orchestra practices in the annex during its summer season. If need be, practice can be held in the theater or other locations around the community, as it has in the past, according to Lake Placid Sinfonietta Executive Director Deborah Fitts.

Lemons said that the LPCA hasn’t yet decided what activities will take place in the old theater building once the new facility opens up. The old building has some infrastructure issues that would need to be addressed, according to Lemons, but he said the LPCA is “cautiously optimistic” that it could still be used.

The LPCA facility opened in December 1972 as the Center for Music, Drama and Art, holding its premiere gala on Dec. 29 of that year. The name changed to the Lake Placid Center for the Arts in January 1984 to build the center’s stature nationally by using the “Lake Placid” brand.

The LPCA offers art exhibits, classes and camps, events and performances, artist residencies, grant opportunities and more. The LPCA also owns Gallery 46 on Main Street, which annually represents more than 100 professional artists who live or work in the Adirondacks.