Can art revitalize Lincoln Trail in Fairview Heights? A new development will find out.
Fairview Heights is known for its shopping centers, restaurants, hotels and trampoline parks.
David Kniepkamp wants it to be known for art, too.
The local businessman has been buying up homes and commercial property along St. Clair Avenue, just west of Bunkum Road, with plans to build Art Village, a five-acre development with studios, galleries, classrooms, a sculpture park, housing for artists-in-residence and spaces for music, theater and dance.
Kniepkamp and his fiancee, artist Catharine Magel, also have formed a non-profit organization so others can support the project with money, materials, services or ideas.
“I think it’s something that can enhance the community, involve the community and provide economic value to this side of Fairview Heights,” said Kniepkamp, 61, who lives in the neighborhood.
The city of Fairview Heights agrees.
Aldermen voted in June to lease an adjacent city-owned lot at 10035 Lincoln Trail to the Art Village organization for $1 a year beginning Aug. 1. It will be used for a sculpture park with rotating outdoor exhibits.
The city had purchased the 2/3-acre property about four years ago and demolished a derelict former dental office on it.
“One of our long-term goals as a city is to revitalize the west side of town,” said Economic Development Director Paul Ellis. “That was one of the reasons for the location of The Rec.”
Ellis was referring to the city’s fitness and recreation center, which opened in 2019 on Bunkum Road.
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Sculpture park near school
The Art Village Sculpture Park will be on the southeast corner of the intersection of Bunkum Road and the stretch of U.S. 50 known as Lincoln Trail, which becomes St. Clair Avenue going west.
The property is across Old Lincoln Trail from Grant Middle School, across Bunkum Road from the rest of Art Village and less than 2 miles from Moody Park, where the Midwest Salute to the Arts Festival is held each summer.
The city of Fairview Heights has applied for a $2.3 million grant for its Lincoln Trail Corridor Streetscape project in the vicinity. The Rebuild Downtowns and Main Streets Capital Grant program is administered by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity using federal COVID-relief money.
If approved, the grant would be matched by city funds from the Lincoln Trail tax-increment-financing district and used to install sidewalks, decorative lighting and landscaping along Lincoln Trail and St. Clair Avenue between Pasadena Drive and St. Clair Road, according to the application.
That would benefit Art Village because streetscape improvements would run along its north side.
“Whether (the grant) goes through or not, we’re going to use TIF money and make it go as far as we can,” Ellis said. “Winning the grant would enhance the project. Not winning the grant wouldn’t stop it.”
The application states that the city has been working for years to revitalize Lincoln Trail, described as Fairview Heights’ original “Main Street” before decades of divestment and decline.
Kniepkamp and Magel hope to open the sculpture park in August, shortly before the Midwest Salute to the Arts Festival on Aug. 26-28. The first exhibit will feature work by Noah Kirby, a sculptor and blacksmith who teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.
Larger-than-average block
Kniepkamp is the founding owner of Smart Controls, a 29-year-old company at 10000 St. Clair Ave. that designs, manufactures and sells commercial building automation-control products.
Kniepkamp has purchased all the property on a nearly five-acre block, bordered by St. Clair Avenue, Bunkum Road, Old Lincoln Trail and St. Clair Road, except for an abandoned Casey’s gas station and one privately-owned home. He also bought a building across Old Lincoln.
“It’s always been one of my goals to take this block and repurpose it to enhance this area and the community,” he said. “It needs a new life, a new energy.”
Kniepkamp’s appreciation for art has grown since he met Magel, who specializes in public art, including ceramic sculptures, metal casting and large-scale murals. In 2020, they formed ArtSculpt International, a company through which she sells custom handmade mosaic tiles and other work produced in her St. Louis studio.
The same year, the couple entered Art Village in the Metro East Start-Up Challenge Business Plan competition at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. They won its $10,000 first-place prize.
Kniepkamp and Magel see art not only as a cultural amenity, but also an economic driver and opportunity for social networking.
“The arts seem to be a little lacking in this area,” Magel said. “It needs a shot in the arm, and art has a way of revitalizing and inspiring and building momentum for people in the community to come together.”
Village is work in progress
Kniepkamp and Magel don’t have a firm timeline for completion of Art Village. It’s considered a work in progress. Landscaping is slated to begin next spring.
One purchased home already is being used as artist-in-residence housing for painter and sculptor Silas Coggeshall, 25. He recently earned his master’s degree at SIUE and serves as a gallery assistant at The Sheldon Concert Hall and Art Galleries in St. Louis.
Coggeshall, who often can be seen painting on the deck behind his small white home, considers himself lucky to be on the ground floor of Art Village planning and execution.
“I’ve always been interested in how these types of programs are formed,” he said.
Three other homes on the block are being converted, one into housing for a second artist-in-residence, mixed-media sculptor Sarah Knight; one for an ArtSculpt gallery; and one for a rental unit. A commercial building also is being leased by a State Farm insurance agency.
About 75 people showed up for an open house on the Lincoln Trail Corridor Streetscape project in December at The Rec, where Kniepkamp displayed a model of what an “art district” might look like someday.
“There seems to be a lot of interest in the community,” Ellis said.
“There were no negative comments,” Kniepkamp added. “Everyone was very nice and supportive.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
