By Mary Stewart | The Selma Times-Journal

ArtsRevive has received a grant that will help with continued renovations of the Carneal Building.

The energy efficiency grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs with help put in insulation.

“We are working now to get the building completely climate controlled,” said outgoing ArtsRevive executive director Martha Lockett. “This grant is specifically to cover the insulation that we need to install in the Carneal Building.”

A new roof was initially finished in 2012, but it was placed directly over wooden decking. The grant will allow Arts Revive to install insulation needed to lower the cost of the heating and cooling systems that will soon be installed.

“We are waiting to see about another (grant), and if we get both of them, that’s enough to completely insulate that entire space,” Lockett said.

This is not the first grant that ADECA has given ArtsRevive.

They also received an energy efficiency grant to put a cooling and heating system in Gallery 905, the art gallery that’s nextdoor.

“We are really appreciative of the ADECA support they give to downtown Selma,” Lockett said.

Lockett has lead the restoration project as director for the past five years but will be handing the reins to Becky Youngblood in the upcoming weeks.

“I’m just really grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of it,” Lockett said, “It has been a really fun ride to watch the climate in Selma to change.”

Lockett is proud of the board and volunteers whom she believes had the biggest impact on the Arts Revive’s growth.

“I feel really good at the place where Arts Revive is right now,” she said. “That group of folks has worked extremely hard to get this close to being finished.”

Lockett also said the group believes that the arts are the way to build the community in Selma.

“The arts are a way to pull people into a space, so they can come to know each other,” she said. “That’s really important in our community.”

ArtsRevive has plans to open the Carneal Building and add programs to fill the building during the week.

“We are so grateful, Arts Revive and Selma, are to the Alabama Departments of Economic and Community Affairs for the support that they have shown us and other organizations in town,” Lockett said. “We just want them to know that they are appreciated.”