TURTLECREEK TWP. — Larry Stone is on a crusade to create a place in Warren County where artists and those who appreciate art can come together.

Artist Jo Ripley touches up one of her works Friday in her Itty Bitty Art Gallery on Main Street in Waynesville. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        The Turtlecreek resident — a 57-year-old self-described old hippie with a ponytail — envisions an art center with a big theater for symphonies and such, a small theater for local acting groups, galleries for exhibits, classrooms for teaching and outdoor space for an annual art festival. He'd like to build a center similar to the Fitton Center for the Arts in Hamilton, “except about three times the size.”

        “I dream big,” Mr. Stone admits. “Of course, my dream means nothing unless somebody else buys into it.”

        He has enlisted the Ohio Arts Council to provide technical assistance and has begun pitching his art center to local government and business leaders. Now, Mr. Stone is inviting those in the art community to hear his ideas and share their own at a meeting July 31.“We have a lot of wonderful art opportunities in Cincinnati and Dayton for those of us who have the resour ces to travel there,” Mr. Stone says.

        Yet to be worked out are potentially sticky issues such as where to build an art center and how to pay for it.

        A third of the county's population is concentrated in the Mason-Deerfield Township area, he notes, and one school of thought would be to locate it where the people are. On the other hand, Lebanon is centrally located and accessible from all parts of the county.

IF YOU GO

What: Art center brainstorm     When: 6:30-8:30 p.m. July 31     Where: Warren County Career Center, 3525 N. Ohio 48

        “The biggest roadblock, of course, will be funding,” Mr. Stone says. “This is a terrible time for the arts. But we will eventually succeed, I think.”

        Indeed, word is beginning to spread, and the feedback has been positive.

        “I like the concept,” says John Harris, president of the Mason Landen Kings Chamber of Commerce. “We have to add some cultural thing s out here. It's time.”

        Mr. Stone began talking up his idea after he retired from a career as a school administrator in Hamilton County. He played drums years ago, and his son Rob is a jazz musician, but Mr. Stone primarily considers himself a consumer of the arts — someone who enjoys seeing plays and hearing live music.

        Painter Jo Ripley had her own description of Mr. Stone when she first heard of his effort to build an art center: “I thought he had just dropped down from heaven.”

        Warren has a real need for an art center, said Ms. Ripley, owner of the Itty Bitty Art Gallery in Waynesville.

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