The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy is selling its two current buildings on E Avenue NE, as it prepares to move into Arthur Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Leaders of the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy had been searching for a place to consolidate and grow their music classes and other offerings, but nothing stood out until they came upon Arthur Elementary School.

The school, at 2630 B Ave. NE, closed at the end of the school year in 2024, as the new Trailside Elementary was built across the street. The Cedar Rapids Community School District offered the building for sale, as well as Garfield Elementary, 1201 Maplewood Dr. NE, which also closed.

Both buildings were constructed in 1914 and opened in 1915. Garfield was sold to a developer and the Cedar Rapids School Board approved the sale of Arthur to the nonprofit arts academy last year.

“I’m really excited,” Executive Director Heather Wagner said, as the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy neared its Jan. 30, 2025, closing date. “We had been looking at properties all over.”

See photos of Garfield and Arthur Elementary as the schools closed

Heather Wagner, executive director of the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, is shown Jan. 16, 2025, at one of the nonprofit’s current buildings in northeast Cedar Rapids. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

The academy will move from its two remaining buildings the first week of February. They already moved out of a third building they had been leasing, all in the Mound View Neighborhood of northeast Cedar Rapids.

Wagner, a Cedar Rapids native and artist with a studio in the historic Cherry Building, began teaching art classes for the academy in 2014 and has led the organization the past two years.

She and facilities manager Drake Wilson looked over the schematic plans for Arthur earlier this week as Wilson placed color-coded stickers on boxes of arts supplies and other items that will make the move to the two-story school.

Wagner said the building will be made ADA accessible, including the installation of an elevator, with a $2 million capital campaign underway. Donations can be made on the nonprofit’s website: EasternIowaArtsAcademy.org

Arthur Elementary is shown before the school closed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy is repurposing the building. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

Accessibility is something Wagner is passionate about, noting more than 75 students with disabilities are involved in arts academy programs, including several who use wheelchairs.

The current Arthur library will become a hub with right-sized tables and other amenities to make it a welcoming environment for those students and others, she said.

Some space in the building will be leased as artist studios and the gym and cafeteria will be offered to rent for reunions, birthdays and other events to provide an ongoing source of revenue.

The Eastern Iowa Arts Academy, established in 2007, offers after-school arts programming for students in Eastern Iowa schools and human service agencies.

Art supplies line one of the rooms used for classes at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. The nonprofit will be moving to Arthur School in February. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

As part of the purchase of the school, the group paid $130,000 to the school district, with another $130,000 being provided in programming, including for students now attending Trailside and Johnson Elementary.

Wagner said she hopes waiting lists for popular classes, such as stained glass, will be alleviated with the move to Arthur. Music and art classes for both adults and kindergarten-through-12th grade students are offered.

Many of the 45 instructors are school teachers, while others, such as mentors in the popular rock academy, are professional musicians.

Russ Fagle, the academy’s Healing HeARTS coordinator for patients and caregivers, who also leads drum circles and other programs, said the nonprofit provides a space where artistically inclined students can feel accepted.

Heather Wagner watches as Russ Fagle tries out two hand drums at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

“Sometimes creative kids are a little bit marginalized,” he said. “You’re not an athlete, you’re not a cheerleader. This is a place where they can go after school and be with other creative kids.”

Financial aid is available for families who cannot afford the annual fee, which offers access to the academy’s music and arts studios.

A recording studio will provide better soundproofing and more space in Arthur school, both Wagner and Fagle noted.

The academy also offers a food pantry and other items for those in need, which can be expanded at the school. Previously a credit union and law offices, the current buildings, at 1841 and 1847 E Ave. NE, will be sold.

A food pantry at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy will have room for expansion at Arthur School. (photo/Cindy Hadish)

“I’ll miss this place,” Wagner said, adding that she sees the Arthur site as an opportunity to gain greater visibility in the community.

Building updates will be completed in the future, and in the meantime, the academy plans an open house to introduce the space at Arthur to the public from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Friday, March 28.

Neighbors have been supportive and an expert in boilers is passing on his knowledge of the heating system, Wagner said.

The group is keeping historical elements, such as hardwood floors, the Arthur stone name block and even the Arthur rock outside.

Read more: Tour highlights endangered schools in Cedar Rapids

“I really respect the fact that it’s historical,” Wagner said. “It’s great to have so many people supporting this repurposing.”

Historical elements inside Arthur Elementary School will be retained as the building is repurposed. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Arthur Elementary, shown in 2024, will be repurposed by the nonprofit Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Guitars are seen in the mixing room Jan. 16, 2025, at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy in Cedar Rapids. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
A chalk sign displays the schedule in January 2025 for studios at the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
Artwork brightens the wall of a room inside the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy. (photo/Cindy Hadish)