A daycare center, the hub for a new summer arts camp, a venue for the occasional sporting event, a training spot for local law enforcement, and a test-taking center for college admissions exams: These are a few of the purposes that Interlochen Center for the Arts (ICA) has identified – or already implemented – for the old Interlochen Community School building, which it resumed ownership of last year. Those activities are all part of an initiative within ICA to turn this long-shuttered elementary school into an asset that “serves the community’s benefit” in a broad variety of ways.

Last March, ICA took over ownership and management of the 45,000-square-foot Interlochen Community School building for the first time in more than half a century, following a legal skirmish with Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS). The school sits on property that previously belonged to ICA, but which ICA granted to TCAPS all the way back in 1950. That land grant agreement was contingent upon the stipulation that TCAPS use the property for “public school purposes” in perpetuity. When TCAPS closed Interlochen Community School in 2016 due to dwindling enrollment, the district’s ability to meet the stipulation ceased, thereby triggering a reverter clause in the contract that gave ownership of the land and the building back to ICA.

TCAPS fought back against that interpretation at first, even appealing an initial ruling that went in ICA’s favor. However, the two parties eventually settled the case, with ICA getting the building back and TCAPS winning some notable caveats: ICA cannot use the building as a school until after the 2028-29 academic year, and TCAPS must be given first right to bring something back to the space in a traditional academic format.

16 months after ICA got the building back and a year after a public engagement session where ICA sought feedback about how the premises should be utilized going forward – and with another five years still to go before ICA can entertain the prospect of reopening the building as a proper school – The Ticker had to ask: What’s going on with the old Interlochen Community School? According to Pat Kessel, ICA’s vice president of finance and operations, the building has quietly turned into a hub of varied activity in the past year.

Last fall, for instance, the Kingsley-based Pitter Patter Preschool and Childcare opened a daycare center at Interlochen Community School. The program is geared toward both “ICA employees and local residents,” per Kessel, and has a current capacity for 40 kids ages 12 months and up, “with a planned expansion to 50 [daycare slots] in the coming months.”

The Interlochen Community School is also home to the Interlochen Arts Discovery Camp, which ICA launched last summer and now operates concurrently with its long-running Interlochen Arts Camp summertime programming. “This day camp gives students ages 7-12 the chance to experience the magic of an Interlochen summer at a reduced cost, with flexible one-week sessions offered between June 19 and August 4, 2023,” Kessel says. ICA uses the Community School building as a hub and gathering space for these programs, but each session also utilizes parts of the ICA campus, which is located just one mile down the road.

This year’s Arts Discovery Camp is offering sessions based around a trio of different themes: “Sustainability,” “Interlochen Public Radio/Theatre,” and “Be Well: Music, Mindfulness, and Dance.” Sustainability camps give students a chance to “enjoy time in Interlochen’s campus greenhouse and explore what it takes to make a garden grow,” and to learn about botany, land and water conservation, invasive plants, composting, climate change, and more. IPR/Theatre Week, meanwhile, blends radio broadcasting curriculum with theatre training, including time for students to observe both the operations of the IPR radio station and rehearsals of Interlochen Arts Camp theatre programs. Finally, the Be Well camps revolve around “yoga, music, and dance classes,” and give students lessons on “mindful listening, body awareness, mindful eating, mindful breathing, and movement,” among other aspects of wellness and mindfulness.

So far, ICA has run three Interlochen Arts Discovery Camp sessions this summer – one each of the Sustainability, IPR/Theatre, and Be Well camps – with four more weeklong sessions to go. Those include a Sustainability camp next week (July 10-14), a Be Well session from July 17-21, and two more cohorts of the IPR/Theatre Week, slated for July 24-28 and July 31-August 4. As of press time, there are still slots up for grabs in the Be Well camp session scheduled for July 17-21. More details and a registration link can be found on ICA’s website. Pricing is $350 per camp.

While the Arts Discovery Camp makes summer the busiest time of year by far at the Interlochen Community School building, Kessel says there are other ideas percolating about how ICA might utilize the facility more regularly in the future. Beyond the daycare center and the day camp, for instance, Kessel tells The Ticker that ICA has used the school in the past year to host games and tournaments for volleyball leagues and lacrosse teams, and has offered the building to local law enforcement agencies “who utilized the site for training purposes.” Additionally, Kessel says ICA is “planning to establish an SAT test-taking center” at the school in the near future, and is in talks with other groups – such as an Irish step dancing troupe – that could hold programs or classes at the building.

As for other potential uses – last June's public engagement session saw local residents suggesting a wide range of possibilities, including a fitness center, a spot for adult education opportunities, a centrally-located community meeting space, a senior center, and a teen-oriented community center similar to The Rock in Kingsley – Kessel says ICA is open to more ideas and is even still soliciting community feedback on the matter.

“Our goal is to continue to restore this community asset so that it serves the community’s benefit,” Kessel concludes. “Anyone with ideas is encouraged to email us at ideas@interlochen.org.”