A West Volusia cultural landmark is about to change hands.
The Museum of Art-DeLand building at 600 N. Woodland Blvd., is now under contract for sale to a buyer as yet undisclosed. The closing date may be only days away, according to Museum of Art Executive Director Pattie Pardee.
“The building has been on the market before, and we’ve had some interesting buyers,“ she told The Beacon, adding that “something happened” before a sale could be finalized.
No information about the prospective buyer or the price and terms of the sale are now available.
Word of the pending sale of the Museum of Art-DeLand surfaced in the agenda for the Volusia County Council’s April 1 meeting. Item H of the consent agenda notes the museum is repaying funds received from the county for four ECHO grants, and the council must approve the payback of $603,526 to clear the title of the property before it is sold.
Now, however, she said, a sale appears imminent and all but completed. Upon the closing of a sale of the property at 600 N. Woodland Blvd., the museum will move to its other location at 100 N. Woodland Blvd. That is the address of the city-owned Fish Building. Older DeLandites may recall that a Woolworth’s store was inside, and now it is the other home for the Museum of Art, called the Museum of Art-DeLand Downtown.
Museum President Dagny Robertson hailed the pending relocation to the downtown address.
“We’re excited about the move. We will be participating in more of the downtown activities, especially on Friday nights,” she said.
The greater visibility at the crossroads of the city may be key to mustering more public support.
“Without more support from local businesses, we’ve got to downsize,” Pardee said.
Both women lamented the loss of state funds for cultural groups and activities.
“[Gov. Ron] DeSantis vetoed the arts budget line item last year,” Pardee noted, adding the Museum of Art suffered a loss of approximately $60,000 by that deletion of spending.
“We are out there scrambling for programming support,” she said.
The Volusia County Property Appraiser’s website puts the just value, meaning the estimated market value, of the Museum of Art at $3,678,520. The Museum purchased the land from Stetson University and completed the building in 1991.
When the Museum moved into the building, two other organizations shared space with it. The Cultural Arts Center and the Sands Theater Center moved out, and the Museum of Art was left to maintain and care for the property.
“Now we’re in a 30-year-old building that needs work,” Robertson said.
Robertson and Pardee said the Museum receives no financial support from Stetson, nor from the City of DeLand.
In an effort to build more public support for the Museum of Art, Pardee said, the Museum offers free admission to visitors on the third Saturday of each month.
