ST PAUL, Minn. — One of oldest music academies in the country established by African-American musicians, has just received the biggest gift in its history.
Walker West Music Academy in St. Paul, is kickstarting a major new expansion thanks to a $4 million gift from Pat and Gary Sauer.
"This gift is just totally transformative," said Braxton Haulcy, Executive Director of Walker West.
Since first opening it's doors 35 years ago, Walker West has worked to expand access to music instruction in and around St. Paul's historic Rondo neighborhood. Now, with the help of that $4 million gift, it's "grow through mission" motto, is also going to grow it's footprint.
The money makes it possible for the nonprofit to acquire and renovate a building at 650 Marshall Avenue in St. Paul. Phase one of the project will reconfigure the building to accommodate music education and administrative offices.
On Monday, Haulcy gave KARE 11 a tour of the space.
"This conference room will become a combo rehearsal room," Haulcy said. "Somewhere between five or six instruments will be playing at the same time in this space."
The money will also help Walker West expand its reach, through expanded staffing and musical offerings.
"It allows us to get maybe 200 kids off our waiting list and get them to taking music lessons," Haulcy said. "And students can also do production and performance as well, so they use those skills as they're learning."
And those skills will be on full display once they finish fundraising for the final piece of their build out. Efforts have already begun to raise an additional $3 million to build out two new performance spaces.
"We're going to have a state of the art performance hall that will seat 200," Haulcy said. "We'll have cameras in the air. We'll have production equipment and it will be just like the Ordway or the Minnesota Orchestra. You'll be able to really get the good quality and sound. This is going to be what I call a cultural destination and a community resource, and it will be free and open to the public."
Haulcy says that destination is now on the horizon thanks to the record money that came courtesy of the Sauers. The couple didn't comment on the substantial gift, but according to the Sauer Family Foundation website, it's mission is to "invest in strengthening the well-being of children so they thrive in their families and communities."
Haulcy says that's exactly what Walker West does through music.
"We know that music helps with brain health, it helps with mental health, it brings joy, and we're doing it uniquely with the African American cultural experience," he said. "That means using the power of music to heal our community, using the power of music to close the educational opportunity gap, it's about bringing people together to grow through music."
To get a better idea of just how transformative this change will be, you can take a virtual tour of the plans for the lobby, performance hall and the multi-purpose space.
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