A New Arts Center for Cary

As I stated in a blog post last week about Calder, this week my son is taking an art camp studying Calder, Chihuly, and Christo, which is a fabulous line up.  But the other exciting aspect of the camp is that these are the first classes he is taking in the brand-new Cary Arts Center.  The Town of Cary is still putting the finishing touches to the building, which renovated one of the oldest schools in the area and turned it into a comprehensive, state-of-the-art arts center.  We had been in the building before, but not when it was in active use, so it was a thrill to see it today, buzzing with students doing what they should be doing there--enjoying the arts.

One of the great things about this new facility is that it is only about a five minute walk from our house, so it is somewhere that my son can easily walk to and from by himself (Yay!).  But today, for his first day, we both walked there together.  Due to the location of our house, we came up to the building from the rear, where the first thing that caught our eyes were the colored plexiglass jutting off the back of the 399 seat theater, which is probably the crowning jewel of the new facility:

The colored plexiglass is carried into the building, and shows up in stair wells and the lobby area to the theater:

The three story building holds 13 art classrooms, rehearsal space, offices, and some gallery exhibition space:

It just seems like a glorious educational, performance, and exhibit space, and I'm really proud of Cary for sticking with this project through difficult economic times.  I am also really happy that they chose to repurpose the old building, Cary Elementary School, which is where my husband went to school.

The grand opening of the building will be on Saturday, August 13, and we plan to be there to be part of the celebration of a space we plan to enjoy regularly!