Lisa Frye founded Art Sanctuary with four local artists more than two decades ago.(Giselle Rhoden / LPM)Art Sanctuary founder Lisa Frye packed everything she could into the Portland warehouse her team got the keys six months ago.On a recent, blazing afternoon, Frye weaved around chandeliers, burle sque costumes, velvet chairs, Halloween props and old signs scattered throughout the 26,000-square-foot space. Construction crews clattered equipment in the room above her, installing Frye’s dream for Art Sanctuary’s new chapter.Now setting up in the Portland neighborhood, Frye said she plans to continue what the organization previously offered, but at a bigger scale: providing rentable studio space for local artists and a headquarters for organizations searching for a new home. The warehouse is cluttered and slightly worn down, but with some timely upgrades, Frye said, the building will be the perfect place for a community arts hub.Frye and her team signed the lease at 2012 Northwestern Parkway in February. As Frye explained, she’s fought the learning curve ever since.“We were always self-sufficient, and with this move, we knew that we were going to have to raise some serious money, and we are trying our best to continue those efforts,” she said. “But it's new to us. We're writing grants for the first time. We're doing all these things that we never had to do before. So that's been a challenge too.”On top of fundraising, Frye has to install multiple bathrooms, proper ventilation and more. She said it's an uphill battle, but community support encourages her progress.“We have amazing people that are helping, and a lot of us are just working around the clock to get those doors back open because we want to start producing shows again and just having a place where people can come and do their art,” she said.Art Sanctuary took over two sections of the warehouse it shares with haunted house American Horrorplex. One area will headquarter the Va Va Vixens, a burlesque and variety show troupe Frye founded 17 years ago. Gothic rock events and concert coordinator Radio Arcane — led by Frye’s husband Shahn Rigsby — will host programming on the property.Frye said Louisville Visual Arts will also lead adult figure-drawing classes in the building.Upstairs, local artists will be able to rent studio space.“It's going to be kind of a first come, first serve,” Frye said. “And then people can pick how many square feet they want, and then we'll just figure out partitioning it out and all of that.”The other section of the warehouse will headquarter Suspend Louisville, an aerial gym based in Butchertown, and some additional performance spaces.After 14 years in its Germantown location, photographer and Art Sanctuary board director Joe Mays said the change was long overdue.“Really happy to see it happening,” Mays said. “I think we're going to build a space that's even bigger and better than the one we had before.”Mays said he hopes they’ll charter more collaborations with their new neighbors.“In our old space in Germantown, I really think that [Art Sanctuary] really helped a lot of other things move into Germantown, and had a lot to do with the movement of a lot of our things into Germantown,” he said. “And I think we can do the same thing in this community in this area, too.”Art Sanctuary’s new location is expected to fully open in January. ...read more read less