Clear Lake holds groundbreaking ceremony for Music Enrichment Center

CLEAR LAKE - A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Music Enrichment Center in Clear Lake was held Wednesday morning.

CLEAR LAKE – A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Music Enrichment Center in Clear Lake was held Wednesday morning.

Dignitaries and officials gathered at 10:00AM on April 17, 2024, to mark the beginning of this transformative project to enhance tourism in Clear Lake. The will be a dynamic space featuring a visitor center/ticket office and gift shop, expanded lesson studios, conference space/catering kitchen and 1,800 square foot immersive exploratory space dedicated to showcasing the Surf Ballroom’s significant contributions to music history, Clear Lake officials earlier reported.

“The planned use of immersive technology within the Music Enrichment Center will help us to further our mission as we look to the future. Unless we are able to help younger generations understand the impact that the 1959 Winter Dance Party and the Surf have had on popular music culture, our valuable story is vulnerable to being lost,” said Laurie Lietz, Executive Director. “This facility will keep the Surf’s history and legacy relevant for many years to come.”

To make the project even more attractive, the City of Clear Lake and the North Iowa Cultural Center & Museum were selected by the Enhance Iowa Board to receive a $400,000 Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant to be used towards construction of the expanded and relocated Surf Ballroom Music Enrichment Center.

NIT earlier reported that the City of Clear Lake was awarded $4,370,000 toward their Clear Lake Surf District project, proudly announced by Governor Kim Reynolds’ office. Funding for this program was made available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act – passed by Democrats in the US Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, but opposed by Republicans and Reynolds herself.