The Galveston Arts Center has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the Texas Historical Commission’s Texas Preservation Trust Fund to help pay for a new handicapped-accessible elevator at the1878 First National Bank Building at 22nd and Strand. The GAC beat out a dozens of other projects to score one of nine grants awarded statewide. Director Alexandra Irvine called damage to the building from 2008’s hurricane Ike "a blessing in disguise." Major flooding made it necessary to gut and re-plan the building’s entire first floor, and uncovered structural issues that could have been nasty surprises down the road.