Help us Preserve our Attic!
OVERVIEW
Our "Go to Bat for The Square" campaign is full steam ahead, entering its second year of raising funds! With a vision for this extensive restoration and preservation project, we are reaching out asking for your support to help us not only mitigate an on-going problem, but to bring the museum to a reimagined future that involves expansion and updating, while showcasing its historical and architectural integrity.
For nearly a half-century, bats and rock pigeons have been roosting in our attic space and have caused some serious health and safety concerns for staff and patrons, as well as damage to the building’s structure. The museum budget alone cannot rectify the problem, so raising funds for this project is crucial. Special thanks to the Montana Historic Preservation grant through the Montana Department of Commerce, Treacy Foundation, Big Sky National Heritage Area, and all other donors for supporting this endeavor.
UPDATE: The first step of this project is set to begin September 25th, 2023 until October 20th, 2023. Dayspring Restoration will remove all debris, furniture, and miscellaneous items from the 33,000 cubic-foot attic space and sanitize kept items and the space. The entire project will be taking place through October 26th.
Update 5/9/2024: The Square is happy to announce that Phase 2 of the Bat Mitigation Project will begin on May 20th and end on May 31st. Phase 2 consists of exterior work on the roof of the historic building and interior work of the ceiling in the attic space. High Country Wildlife Control will be delivering 2 boom lifts that will be circling around the building. These lifts will safely allow the workers to: reach areas of the steep roof to take off all the ridge and eve caps; apply a fine mesh; and reinstall the ridge and eve caps back in place. This mesh will prevent the bats from reentering the attic space. After the exterior roof work is complete, the pest control professionals will come into the attic space to spray a pest control-type foam into every small crevice that the bats could enter. Once this is complete, this particular project be closed out through the 2023-2024 Montana Historic Preservation Grant. Next, in mid-June 2024 the painting of the Exterior Windows will begin.
Please be cautious around the lifts on The Square's lawn. It is best not to stand around them or under them.
The museum will stay open to the public. Please pardon any noise disruption during your visit to The Square.
Check out Our Attic!
This video was produced for the Give Great Falls fundraising campaign in May 2023.
About this Project
WE NEED YOU!
With your investment in us, we will see to it that this vision of the museum’s future becomes a reality. We will bring the museum to its greatest glory as it continues to serve its purpose as a contemporary art museum, all the while preserving the historical integrity.
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Action Plan Schedule for Day Spring Restoration: Bat Mitigation Project
Day 1: Sept 25th:
Remove Red Awning on the West side entrance, remove lampposts glass cover. These items will be stored in a pod which will be placed on the east side of the parking lot.
The arch window will be removed for items to be passed through.
Scaffold will be erected over where the awning is so that items can be placed on the scaffold.
Items placed on the scaffold will be placed into a large bucket attached to a Telehandler forklift, to then be discarded into a dumpster.
Items that The Square is keeping will be placed into a pod on the east side of the parking lot to be cleaned and eventually brought back into the attic after they clean the objects.
The Arch window will be boarded up each night at the close of their day. They will be using the elevator if needed and also the attic stairs and westside and east side stairs if needed.
Day 2: Sept 26th:
Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.
Day 3: Sept 27th:
Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.
Day 4: Sept 28th:
Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 5: Sept 29th:
Removal of contents on the west side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 6: October 2:
Items placed on the scaffold will be placed into a large bucket attached to a Telehandler forklift, to then be discarded into a dumpster.
Items that The Square is keeping will be placed into a pod on the east side of the parking lot to be chemically cleaned and eventually brought back into the attic after they clean the objects.
The Arch window will be boarded up each night at the close of their day. They will be using the eastside attic stairs if needed.
Day 7: October 3rd:
Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 8: October 4th:
Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 9: October 5th:
Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 10: October 6th:
Removal of contents on the east side of the attic.
Begin HEPA Vacuum walls, floor and all surfaces thereof, and chemical clean on guano affected areas (9-1 bleach solution and a thirty-minute dwell time.
Day 13: October 11: Attic Cleaning
Day 14: October 12: Attic Cleaning
Day 15: October 13: Attic cleaning and removal of a few more contaminated objects.
Day 16: October 16: Attic cleaning
Day 17: October 17: Attic Cleaning
Day 18: October 18: Cleaned contents brought back into attic.
Day 19: October 19: Cleaned contents brought back into attic.
Day 20: October 20: Cleaned contents brought back into attic. Tentative date for completion of the clean-out, and clean-up of the attic space.
Day 21: Monday, October 23: Final cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building. Ground Divots filled and Asphalt damage caused by lift, remedied.
Day 22: Tuesday, October 24: Final Cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building. Ground Divots filled and Asphalt damage caused by lift, remedied.
Day 23: Wednesday, October 25: Final Cleaning in the attic and contents brought back into the building.
Day 24: Thursday, October 26th: Potential date for awning to be installed back in place on Westside entrance.
Day 25: Friday: Any loose ends and potentially the last day for completion!
The next phase, after the clean-up, is having High Country Wildlife Pest Control to come in and complete the exclusion portion of the project on the exterior roof and the interior of the attic space, slated for this Fall or Early Spring before the Bats arrive again next season.
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Built in 1896, Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art has long served as a center for learning and culture. From a school building to a cultural center and art museum, The Square has evolved over the years, and its service to the community has evolved as well to meet the needs of our patrons and art lovers.
We now face a difficult choice that can determine the future of The Square. Without action, our current capacity for maintaining the attic will eventually lead to permanent and more costly damage. Shifting our efforts is crucial. As stewards to this historic landmark and cultural center, we must take on the challenge of not only mitigating a dangerous issue but of embarking on a long overdue expansion project. And we are moving forward with great care and attention.
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Bats are important to our environment. The Square has proposed an ethical mitigation plan that focuses on deterring the bats from reentering the museum’s attic space during their migration in the spring. With the guidance of certified wildlife specialists from the National Wildlife Control Operators Association (NWCOA), we can ethically exclude and make efforts to relocate the bats with minimal disturbance to their migratory route.
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Once the attic is safe for use and after the projected multi-month clean-up and mitigation portion of the project is complete, we will begin the process of renovating the attic space to both house our permanent collection and to make the space accessible to the public. Opening original stairways, creating climate-controlled vaults to house our valuable collections, and designing the 33,000 cubic-foot attic into our vision of usable space will bring staggering potential for expansion and possibility.
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The museum assumes a legal and ethical responsibility for the care of its permanent collection of artworks. The art collected through the years is a record and a legacy of the cultural heritage and social values of not only a specific physical region, but of entire generations of social response and values. Curating and preserving the collection is a life-long intention to educate, create awareness, and to reflect an appreciation of such cultural movements and milestones. The impact of preserving the documents of such are vital to The Square’s mission and values to promote and educate others in appreciating the role of art in society.
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Since launching our campaign in 2021, we have made substantial progress. We continue to come closer to our financial goal to begin the work to restore and preserve the attic space to eventually house our permanent collection. UIn FY23, The Square was awarded $300,979 by the Montana Department of Commerce’s Montana Historic Preservation Grant program (MHPG) toward the rehabilitation, ethical bat mitigation, and cleanup of our historic attic space, as well as repainting 154 exterior windows.
The museum was recently awarded and just completed a Collections Assessment for Preservation (CAP Assessment). Professionals in historic preservation and in art conservation spent two intensive days assessing the building and the state of our collections. They will prepare and share their findings by May 31, 2023, and The Square will use their findings of what we are doing right and their recommendations for improvements to build our strategic plan.
The images below are strictly for preliminary idea/brainstorming purposes, and do not represent any final decisions or designs on the part of The Square. Renders courtesy of Joshua Hall of LPW Architecture.
