Group aims to build arts campus out of warehouses

The Community Organizations Promoting the Arts (COPA), spearheaded by musician Dale Sticha, hopes to turn three adjoining lots at 2841 Index Road in Fitchburg into an arts campus, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report. Sticha has purchased the lots that contain warehouses and plans to create a $35 million facility offering arts production, studio and rehearsal space, a performance venue, and technical training. For now, one of the buildings, “The COPA,” has an urban jazz club vibe and is the venue for a monthly Madison Jazz Jam. Sticha and his COPA board of directors aim to build an arts education campus serving all ages with a variety of arts, education, and community-related activities. In addition to a 70,000-square-foot building with a 400-seat theater, the campus would feature orchestra rehearsal halls, large rehearsal rooms, classrooms, practice rooms, and administrative spaces.