After more than two decades under city ownership, the Dairy Arts Center has bought its building back from the city of Boulder, returning the keys to the nonprofit that has spent years programming, fundraising and patching together fixes inside its walls.
The City Council approved the sale on Aug. 7, authorizing the city manager to transfer ownership of the building at 2590 Walnut St. to the organization that operates the Dairy, according to council agenda materials. The vote resolved an arrangement that began in 2000, when the city stepped in to keep the arts center operating during a financially precarious stretch and ended up holding the deed much longer than anyone expected.
The building’s second life as an arts hub is now so familiar that it can be easy to forget what it was when it first opened more than 50 years ago…