Waterville, Maine — Waterville Creates! and Common Street Arts are moving their administrative and programming operations from The Center building to the Hathaway Creative Center beginning August 20th. The move is part of the long-term plan to redevelop the building at 93 Main Street as the recently announced Downtown Arts Center. While a construction date for the Downtown Arts Center has yet to be determined, the move will allow the arts organization to continue its popular exhibition and arts education programs at Common Street Arts while fundraising and planning for the Downtown Arts Center continues.
“We want to provide our gallery patrons and community members with uninterrupted programming as we prepare for the Downtown Arts Center at 93 Main Street,” said Patricia King, vice president at Waterville Creates! “We are thrilled to have found a location close to the heart of downtown that has freshly renovated studio and gallery space where we can continue to expand our diverse community-oriented programming. The folks at Hathaway Creative Center have been extremely welcoming.”
The Waterville Creates! administrative offices will move to the Hathaway Creative Center, 10 Water Street, Suite 106 the week of August 20th; the Common Street Arts gallery, classroom, and clay studio will move the week of September 4th after the Labor Day holiday. While the new office and education spaces are being arranged, Common Street Arts programming, including its signature free series, Art in the Park, will continue to be held at 93 Main Street in downtown Waterville through August 30th.
The Waterville Downtown Arts Center is designed to bring together under one roof some of Waterville’s most beloved arts institutions along with a dynamic and collaborative creative team to lead them. The Downtown Arts Center will be located on the current site of The Center building at 93 Main Street, directly adjacent to the Waterville Opera House and City Hall and downtown’s central green space, Castonguay Square. Plans for the Downtown Art Center include the relocation of the Maine Film Center’s Railroad Square Cinema with three film screening rooms and a permanent home for the Maine International Film Festival, the Common Street Arts gallery, education classroom, and clay studio, a new contemporary gallery of the Colby College Museum of Art, made possible by a $2 million leadership gift from Colby College Trustee Emeritus Paul J. Schupf, LL.D. ’06, a brand-new rehearsal space for the Waterville Opera House that also will serve as a shared space for special events and receptions, a combined box office for the Maine Film Center, Waterville Opera House, and other arts institutions and partners, flexible educational space that can be used as a film editing and new media classroom, a small screening room, a rehearsal space, or a place for workshops and lectures, and an open concept workspace for the Waterville Creates! creative team, which will include the staff of the Maine Film Center, Waterville Opera House, and Common Street Arts.
Waterville Creates! is leading a community capital campaign to raise $2 million in support of this transformative project. To learn more about this transformative project in downtown Waterville, visit www.downtownartscenter.org
About Waterville Creates!
Waterville Creates! is a non-profit on a mission to promote, support, and grow greater Waterville’s arts and cultural scene. Collaborating with regional arts and culture institutions and their supporters, together we are strengthening our community as a vibrant creative center, increasing access to creative opportunities. Learn more at https://www.watervillecreates.org