Big changes are happening in the Carrboro arts scene. For the past three years, The ArtsCenter has been planning to move to a new building on Jones Ferry Road. Now, that plan is changing. The ArtsCenter announced it will instead relocate its programming to a building at Roberson Street.
The ArtsCenter’s current home at 300 East Main Street in Carrboro is just a five-minute walk away from its new home to be located at 400 Roberson Street.
Concept plans for The ArtsCenter (David A. Gange Architecture PLLC)
The ArtsCenter has been in the heart of Carrboro since it was founded in 1974. It was previously located in the same building as Armadillo Grill, then in Carr Mill Mall before it moved to its current building at 300 East Main.
In January 2019, The ArtsCenter Board of Directors approved the purchase of a 1.3 acre site at Jones Ferry Road. The Jones Ferry site was planned as a two-story building to house all the ArtsCenter activities like performance, art classes and artist residencies.
Chasyah Scott is the marketing director for The ArtsCenter. She said one exciting aspect of the new Roberson Street space is its versatility.
“It just brings up more opportunities for the artist community and for aspiring artists and the youth,” Scott said. “It’s definitely an opportunity for brand new programming and just to keep the events and the afterschool programs and the things that have been keeping The ArtsCenter going. I’m just looking forward to this new project.”
The ArtsCenter location is not the only change happening, there’s also a change in leadership. Mark Bettger is the new Deputy Director and Wendy Smith is the new Development Director after Executive Director Dan Mayer left the position in January.
Bettger told 97.9 The Hill the move from the Jones Ferry location to the new Roberson Street location is a good long-term investment both real-estate wise and community wise.
“Everybody’s really excited about having something right in the heart of Carrboro,” Bettger said. “It’s great the building’s already built. This is really going to take us into the future. We want to be able to continually progress.”
Bettger said with the larger space The ArtsCenter can offer the community traditional art forms but even new and evolving technology like green screens, laser printing and virtual reality.
“One of the attributes of this space as well is that we’re going to actually have a performance space [which] we weren’t going to have at Jones Ferry,” Bettger said.
Featured Photo via David A. Gange Architecture PLLC
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