Bermuda’s access to art education lies in your hands. As I write, Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation has 200 days to find a new home — a home for the more than 1,000 children it serves each year through a hybrid of public-school partnerships, camps, workshops and classes focused on hands-on learning and creative self-expression. Not to mention the ten staff members for whom Kaleidoscope provides employment, benefits and security — one of only a handful of places on the island to do so for working artists.

As everyone who has walked through the doors of the Old Elliott School building at 27 Jubilee Road knows, there is nowhere else quite like Kaleidoscope on the island. It is a warm, welcoming space where children from all walks of life are nurtured and encouraged to be their full selves. Among the paint-splattered tables and towering boxes of messy art supplies and materials, children are encouraged both to learn — from some of the most exciting artists working in Bermuda today — and to lead, with their own imagination and creativity. All leave with greater curiosity, confidence and resilience.

Last year, 63 children attended classes and camps on fully funded bursaries, ensuring equitable access for all. Next year, Kaleidoscope will celebrate 20 years of empowering children through art and hands-on learning. Over the past two decades, the foundation has reached more than 10,000 children. Many of them have gone on to further develop their artistic practices and on to successful creative careers, despite living in an economy driven by corporate employment.

As a Kaleidoscope parent, I have seen first-hand the joy and confidence that their classes and camps bring to children. As chair of the board of directors, I have also seen the depth of founder Fiona Rodriguez-Roberts’s passion and grit in keeping the organisation afloat through what often feels like challenge after challenge in a community that does not always value the arts. As Director of Exhibitions at the Bermuda National Gallery, I have also partnered professionally with Kaleidoscope on a number of programmes inspired by our exhibitions, and I have worked with many of their teachers as artists who regularly exhibit with us. BNG’s permanent collection includes a work of Fiona’s — which she is too modest to tell many people, but which, I hope, gives you a sense of the calibre of teaching at Kaleidoscope.

Despite this, what has always struck me most about Kaleidoscope is just how much children are encouraged to follow their own imagination rather than the set projects; as well as how little hierarchy exists between student and teacher/professional artist and child, and the ways in which this truly democratic approach fosters creativity and confidence — essential skills that extend way beyond the four walls of the classroom.

But walls are needed if Kaleidoscope is to continue empowering our children. With the 20-year lease on the present property expiring in spring — now thankfully extended from March to June to allow students to complete the academic year — time is of the essence. In August, a formal proposal for the adaptive use of Montpelier, 15 Middle Road, Devonshire, was sent to the Government. The Grade 3-listed building has, like many of our government-owned buildings, sat empty for many years. Nestled on the edges of the Arboretum, the building would provide both the indoor and outdoor space that Kaleidoscope requires. Crucially, Kaleidoscope has proposed to raise the funds needed to cover the cost of the extensive renovations needed — which are expected to run close to $2 million — alleviating the cost from the taxpayer.

The proposal for the adaptive use of Montpellier was sent in together with supporting letters from the Bermuda National Trust, leaders in the cultural community and longtime Kaleidoscope parents such as Kim Dismont-Robinson. Please stand with them, and with Kaleidoscope, in encouraging the Government to reconsider plans for the building to be converted into a high-end private residential rental and apply for a change of use.

As Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage at the Bermuda National Trust, points out in her letter of support, “public ownership of such a visible heritage site should, ideally, be aligned with community-serving uses”.

Meanwhile, Montpellier continues to fall into further disrepair and Kaleidoscope’s future continues to hang in the balance — as does that of all the children it serves.

• Eve Godet Thomas is the chairwoman of Kaleidoscope Arts Foundation (registered charity No 365). Stand with Kaleidoscope and sign the petition athttps://c.org/4N6Tc9HPMz