How do you move an entire museum’s worth of art?

If you’re Debra Petke, executive director of Framingham’s Danforth Art, the answer these days is . . . quickly.

The museum and studio art school is racing to find a temporary home after the town of Framingham informed Danforth Art that the boiler in its municipally owned Danforth Building had not passed state inspection, meaning the 40-year-old organization would have to vacate the premises as soon as Sept. 1.

“It certainly puts a strain on us,’’ said Petke. “We knew we wouldn’t be here for a long time, but to learn we had a four- to five-month period to move a museum and a school was really surprising.’’

The museum, which has occupied the building rent-free since 1975, has been planning to leave the Danforth Building since at least 2014, when it purchased the Jonathan Maynard Building for $1.5 million. Petke said that although Danforth Art plans eventually to make the Maynard Building its permanent home, a portion of the building is currently leased to Framingham State University. She added that the building would also need to be renovated before Danforth Art could move in.

Petke said the museum is now searching for rental properties — a task made more complicated in that Danforth Art needs space to store its 3,500-work collection, accommodate an art school that provides some 400 classes annually, provide 6,000 square feet of gallery space, and house its administrative staff.

“School and gallery space is most critical — and most difficult,’’ said Petke, who added they were considering various building configurations. “That could be one entire property — a 25,000 square-foot space where we could put everything — or maybe the school and the museum will be in separate places for a time.’’

“There was a period where Danforth Art was without a director, so they couldn’t move forward with a strategic plan or fund-raising,’’ said Petke, who signed on as executive director last spring after the previous director left in January. “My plan as director was to create a strategic plan and fund-raise for the renovation.’’

Petke, who said the museum had originally planned to move sometime in the next several years, added that she and the board of trustees had yet to establish a fund-raising goal for the renovation.

“We need the strategic plan — how much storage, how many studios for the art school, how much square footage for programming,’’ she said. “That would help us determine fund-raising.’’

Those issues took on a new urgency earlier this month when the building’s boiler failed inspection, forcing the museum to view its long-term strategy through the lens of this short-term crisis.

“I wish I could tell you when we could get into the Maynard Building,’’ she said. “ASAP is not a date, but it feels like that to me right now.’’

Framingham Town Manager Robert Halpin said problems with the antiquated boiler were the result of years of deferred maintenance to the century-old building, which an ad hoc commission recently recommended should be razed.

“Look, there is more here than just the boiler,’’ said Halpin, who estimated that repairs to the boiler alone could exceed $1 million. “The roof leaks like a sieve. There’s water down to the interior partitions of walls in the basement. The building has gotten to the end of its useful life.’’

For years, the Danforth Building has served as a de facto cultural center for the Town of Framingham, which offered several cultural nonprofits rent-free use of the building. Those groups — which include the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, the Framingham Artists’ Guild, and others — have been advised they should vacate the property by Sept. 1.

“We’ve been looking at three different places we might rent on an interim basis, but it is going to be hard on us,’’ said Mary Opanasets, executive director of the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, which offers classes in dance, theater, and music to some 500 students annually. “We’re going to have to rent at a low, nonprofit rate because we don’t have a lot of money.’’

Opanasets added that the school, which has been in the building for 24 years, had originally planned to leave the building when Danforth Art moved into its new home in the Maynard.

“When we talked to the town two years ago they implied that when the Danforth left we should leave because they wouldn’t maintain the building anymore,’’ said Opanasets, who’s now looking to move seven pianos and a quarter-century worth of props and sets. “I just wish that there was a cultural center here that we could all move into, but there isn’t, so we’re going to have to find our way.’’

In fact, Halpin said, Danforth Art’s planned move to the Maynard Building was meant to help create a culturally oriented district in Framingham.

“The plan when we sold them the building was that they’d add the museum to the existing cultural assets around the town common,’’ said Halpin. “The expectation was that they’d have moved by now.’’

Petke, who said the trustees “have really rallied,’’ said it was possible they could use the Maynard Building to store the museum’s collection and house the administrative staff. What she said was critical, though, was that Danforth Art have a physical space to hold exhibits and classes as it launches the fund-raising campaign.

“We’re going to be an institution,’’ she said. “We’re just not sure which four walls are going to be around us.’’

Malcolm Gay can be reached at malcolm.gay@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @malcolmgay