Arthouse

The good news from Arthouse just keeps coming. Following the announcement that curator Elizabeth Dunbar gave birth to a son the day after opening her latest exhibition, the statewide contemporary art association has announced a new push in the renovation of its headquarters at the corner of Congress and Seventh streets: Patrons Mickey and Jeanne Klein, Julie and John Thornton, and an anonymous donor have joined forces to add $500,000 to the Arthouse capital campaign in the form of a 2-to-1 challenge grant. For every $2 in new three-year pledges that the campaign receives, this team will kick another buck into the pot, which could mean a cool million for the makeover of the Jones Center for Contemporary Art. Celebrated New York firm Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis will take the vacant upstairs of the historic onetime movie theatre and department store and make a new main gallery, a 90-seat multipurpose room for film and video screenings, and two artists' studios for artists in residence at Arthouse. And on the roof will be a new 5,500-square-foot space with a 17-foot-by-33-foot movie screen for special events and screenings. Arthouse has currently raised $4.2 million toward the campaign's $6.6 million goal. Once the Klein Thornton Arthouse Challenge is met, the organization will be 80% of the way home. Look for construction to begin in 2009 and be completed in 2010, in advance of Arthouse's 2011 centennial. For more information, visit www.arthousetexas.org.