*Sunday 7/27/25, 1pm: "ART House 360 Tour, at the Former Verona Graded School." A FIELD TRIP at ART House 360, 401 West Verona Avenue, Verona, WI  53593.

Our beloved Verona Graded School building began the next chapter of its long life when its doors reopened this year as ART House 360.  After turning 100 in 2017, this school's next six years were marked by uncertainty as to what its fate would be once the school district's then-upcoming reorganization was complete.  After negotiations, a land swap between the city and the school district, a multitude of city council and committee meetings, requested proposals from private developers, and years of discussion, a unique plan for the building took shape.

During this whirlwind, a group of artists, actors, and dancers formed a nonprofit partnership called "ART House 360."  They presented to the City of Verona an ambitious plan to renovate the building into a multi-use hub for the arts, fundraising and transforming this space to the benefit of the community while being respectful of the school's historical character.  The plan was accepted, and renovations began in early 2024.  Members of our historical society have gotten to know the ART House folks throughout this process, and now that the building is opening it's clear that this is among the best examples of the reimagining and revitalizing of a historic structure in the Verona Area. 

This tour will be given by members of the ART House 360 group for the Verona Area Historical Society and interested members of the public.  We will see firsthand the interior transformation that allows this historic school building to host a wide variety of modern artistic and educational uses.  We will also hear stories of what it was like to coordinate this massive effort, directly from the folks who pulled it off.  If you know this building personally, this tour is a great chance to return and revisit your memories among the whimsical and mural-filled hallways and classrooms.

*Sunday 9/28/25, 1pm:  "The Path to Our New High School." At the Verona Senior Center, 108 Paoli St, Verona, WI.

This will be our next regular meeting, and our guests will be Dean Gorrell and Denny Beres.  Both are Verona history all-stars, having presented to us individually in the past (Dean about the 2014 Country View School tornado, and Denny about saving and restoring a cool old Verona house).  We are getting them together to form a "dream team" of two folks who were deeply involved in the massive changes our school district undertook in the 2010s.  We all remember the big referendum of April 2017, but the hard work actually started years before that and continued through the opening of the new high school (unfortunately during a pandemic) in 2020.  Dean and Denny will share some of their personal memories from that time.

Thinking back on Verona's four previous "new high schools," we would have loved to have had this opportunity to interview the folks who made those projects happen.  It will be a real treat to capture these firsthand stories this time around!