Lancaster Festival visitors get first look at renovated Art & Clay on Main this year

LANCASTER − Those visiting Art & Clay on Main this week during the Lancaster Festival and the couple thousand people who visited during ArtWalk no doubt noticed some changes from last year.

Following a renovation that ended in October 2023, the county-owned business at 150 W. Main St. now has more space to work in for its art studio and the Square Seven Coffee House . The paint bar is improved and the building has new lighting and a new paint job, among other improvements.

"With the renovation, of course, the aesthetics were primary because they needed tweaked," general manager Mitsi Clark Niceswanger said. "But being that we are a social enterprise of Fairfield DD (Fairfield County Board of Developmental Disabilities), it always bothered us that this 180-year-old building wasn't 100% accessible."

She said federal requirements through the American Disabilities Act mandate 25% accessibility in a public space, which Nicewanger said is not a lot of accessibility. For example, the business has a paint bar for clients to paint their artwork on. But she said it was not the appropriate height before the renovation.

"Children couldn't really get to it, they had to be lifted up," Niceswanger said. "Same as the sink. For somebody in a wheelchair, it was not accessible, so they would have to go to the bathroom to wash their hands. That's just not acceptable."

Therefore, the county-owned business received around $100,000 in federal funds to make the needed changes to the building it rents.

"It's not our building," Niceswanger said. "But we were growing so consistently that we were like 'Our we going just going to stop and be stagnant or are we keep moving?' So we decided to invest those funds back in the business. The accessibility now I can say is 100%."

She said the renovation allowed for 12 more seats in the building and allowed for better traffic flow.

"We took all the seating and moved it to the perimeters," Niceswanger said. "We have most of the seating bolted down now. Because people would move tables and chairs to accommodate their party and they would block accessibility. It just works now."

jbarron@gannett.com

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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Lancaster Festival visitors get first look at renovated Art & Clay on Main this year