Arts group will be on Main in Longmont
LONGMONT – The Committee for the Cultural and Performing Arts has moved forward in its effort to create an arts center in downtown Longmont and will lease part of the 77,000-square-foot Main Street School at 820 Main St. in Longmont beginning this fall.
The arts group will be sharing the building with the St. Vrain Valley School District adult education program, but negotiations on space planning have not yet begun.
The facility currently is occupied by the Twin Peaks Charter School. The school will vacate the facility this summer to make way for the arts center, which will include classrooms, studio space and galleries.
“We met with the school district last evening (Jan. 14) and presented all our investigations and studies and reviewed our vision for the school,´ said Dr. Peter Schmid, chairman of the cultural committee. “We’re going to call it the Longmont School for the Arts, and it will be a platform project for a performing arts complex in Longmont we hope to complete by 2014 or 2015.”
Built in 1907, the Main Street School has a 475-seat theater, which will be used as a performance space for small dance troupes, music venues and community high school performances.
In the second phase of the school’s development, the cultural committee plans to add an 800-seat theater to serve as a hub for a downtown cultural arts entertainment district in Longmont.
“Our community has been searching for a project to revitalize downtown,” Schmid said. “We think this will be the most important catalyst for the project to develop a cultural and arts district. An historical education facility like Twin Peaks fits in very well with our design to revive historic downtown Longmont.”
The committee raised $85,000 from private donors, businesses and organizations to pay for assessments, a business plan and theater consultant. The cultural committee will start a capital campaign to raise money to restore the building and theater.
Schmid, who is a plastic surgeon in Longmont, also owns and teaches sculpture at the Longmont Sculpting Studio.
LONGMONT – The Committee for the Cultural and Performing Arts has moved forward in its effort to create an arts center in downtown Longmont and will lease part of the 77,000-square-foot Main Street School at 820 Main St. in Longmont beginning this fall.
The arts group will be sharing the building with the St. Vrain Valley School District adult education program, but negotiations on space planning have not yet begun.
The facility currently is occupied by the Twin Peaks Charter School. The school will vacate the facility this summer to make way for the arts center, which will include classrooms, studio space…
THIS ARTICLE IS FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY
Continue reading for less than $3 per week!
Get a month of award-winning local business news, trends and insights
Access award-winning content today!