MOUNT VERNON — As of Dec. 1, the Knox County Art League has moved out of the B&O Depot on West High Street and moved to new quarters at 15 N. Main St. The lease between the depot, which is owned by the city of Mount Vernon and run by a board of directors, and the art league was not renewed in what was described by both sides as a mutual agreement.

“The board had fairly high expectations for the tenant to be in there as far as taking care of the place,” said B&O board president Phil Samuel. “And those expectations were not met. [The depot] is a nice piece of Mount Vernon history, and we would like a group that would like that and could handle that to be in there.”

Tonia Osborn, president of the KCAL, felt the move was a good one for the league.

“Their expectations changed over the last couple of years,” she said, “and the art league felt that it was better that we do what we do best and move back to a Main Street venue where we could have walk-in traffic and create art and not be managers [of the B&O Depot].”

As part of the original agreement, the art league paid rent and offered to rent the space out to provide income to the depot and the art league. Osborn said that turned out to be more of an expectation than the art league anticipated; the B&O board agreed.

The B&O board is looking for a new tenant for the facility and is in the process of formulating standards for a new tenant.

“What we are doing is coming up with a request for a proposal,” Samuel said. “Once we have drafted it — and we are close to that — we will advertise for that. That will set out our expections. We are putting it into writing and we will be advertising for groups to send us proposals.”

Samuell said the the depot is still available to be rented while a new tenant is being sought. Those interested can call 397-4040 and ask for Clint.

Osborn feels the new space will work better for the goals of the art league.

“The space [at the depot] was limited for what we were allowed to do,” she said. “We just wanted to be able to hold classes and have a retail space that was optimal for everything we wanted to do.

“It’s ironic because people look at this [new] space and say it’s so much smaller than the depot. But then they look at our gallery and the wall space available, and the gallery space we could use at the depot was so much smaller than this. And if you walk out the back door and down the steps, the same space is downstairs as upstairs, which we can use for workshops. So we really have more space here than at the depot.”