After nearly 25 years highlighting local and regional artists, art museum looks to expand its footprint
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IDAHO FALLS — Since opening its doors in 2002, a museum that describes itself as “the premier visual arts organization in eastern Idaho” is looking to expand.
In 2014, the Idaho Art Museum of Eastern Idaho conducted a feasibility study that highlighted the need for more space.
EastIdahoNews.com spoke with executive director Alexa Stanger, who said the museum had maximized the space available for storing items off-site.
In a news release, the museum said it has entered an official partnership with Resin Architects, which has been helping the museum since 2019 and recently played a role in designing the new center.
Stanger said that in 2022, when she was the education director, she met with Resin architect Graham Whipple on a bus tour of an Archie Teater Studio in Bliss. Whipple and Stanger had known each other for years, and during the bus drive, she mentioned the need to create some renders for the new center.
She said that Whipple took that feasibility study and began designing floor plans and renderings of the future space.
According to the museum’s website, the new space will serve as an education center and expand the museum by 22,000 square feet.
Stanger said the goal of this project is to move the museum’s educational aspects to the new section and to provide its own classroom spaces. This will be on the second floor.
Additionally, the museum’s gallery space will expand, enabling larger exhibits to be featured on the main floor. The museum’s basement storage space will also expand.
Since 2024, the museum has been raising funds for the expansion, including grants from the CHC Foundation, the Hartwell Foundation, the Simplot Foundation and other private contributions.
Stanger said the total cost of the expansion was estimated at $6 million.
The expansion will roll out in phases, depending on how much funding is raised, to slowly expand the museum while opening new sections to the public.
“We’re a fairly young organization,” Stanger said. “We really want to create connectivity between historic downtown Idaho Falls … (and) create a destination here.”
Anyone interested in supporting the development of the education center can donate and have their name attached to a fish.
Depending on the level of financial donation, an art installation featuring local and native fish from the Snake River will be created. The levels for this art installation range from $300 (rainbow trout) to $4,000 (sturgeon).
Other donation tiers are available on the Art Museum’s website.
Overall, Stanger said the Art Museum’s goal is to highlight Idaho and western artists in Idaho Falls and beyond.
“We want to celebrate the voices, all the voices of Idaho artists, present contemporary artists, as well as historically,” Stanger said. “We also love to bring in new ideas. It’s important to bring in other kinds of artists with other viewpoints and understandings, so they can really feed the inspiration for people in our own community.”