‘A necessary happening’: ArtsCenter celebrates 50 years in Carrboro community.

What started with one man, a dream and a room in Carrboro 50 years ago is now a center that lets visitors engage with the arts and explore the craft of new technologies.

On Thursday and through next month, The ArtsCenter will celebrate its anniversary with a toast to the past and the future, and an exhibit celebrating local artists who contributed to its rich history, said Wendy Smith, the center’s executive director.

The nonprofit arts organization counted over 75,000 unique visits last year, when it moved into a new, 18,000-square-foot home at 400 Roberson St.

The new space “is just absolutely fantastic,” said Smith, who previously worked as the center’s development director, a job that required her to secure grant funding for the new building.

“We had a lot of pretty lofty goals and pretty exciting goals, like expanding accessibility, really doing better with our DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) goals, bringing more diverse folks into the space,” Smith said. “We were really interested in makerspace technology and how that would integrate with our traditional arts, and as we have settled in, I’m seeing all those goals fulfilled.”

How did the ArtsCenter get started?

The ArtSchool on Main Street — the forerunner to The ArtsCenter — was founded by a local artist, Jacques Menache, in 1974. The early studio offered drawing and painting classes above the current Atlas Bar on East Main Street.

Menache, 76, who remains involved and takes classes from time to time, had a dream rooted in the Latin American cultural centers of Mexico City, where he grew up and first studied art. In 1969, he moved to Chapel Hill and enrolled in UNC’s Master of Fine Arts program.

The idea of the ArtSchool soon took off, attracting a group of dancers who needed performance space. In 1979, the studio moved to Carr Mill Mall, where it flourished until relocating to the former Piggly Wiggly grocery store at 300 E. Main St. in 1986.

“It was not a coincidence that it snowballed like that, but I never expected it to be such a necessary thing in the community, and a necessary happening that the community would accept,” Menache said. “I think this is why it’s lasted so long, because there was always a need in the community for community theater, for films, for dance, for music, for classes.”

What anniversary events are planned?

▪ Aug. 15 party: Starts at 5 p.m. with a toast to the new ArtsCenter and its rooftop guardian angel, “The Creative Spirit.”

▪ Mayor Barbara Foushee will read a proclamation declaring Aug. 15 to be The ArtsCenter Day in Carrboro.

▪ An art exhibit showcasing local artists: “50 Years of Artistry: Honoring the Past, Embracing the Present, Shaping the Future” is on display. An opening reception will be from 6-8:30 p.m. Aug. 23 with live marionette performances, music, and snacks and wine.

What does the future hold?

Before Menache opened the ArtSchool, Carrboro wasn’t known as an “artsy town,” Smith said, but his dream has since evolved to become what the community needed. The next 50 years has started with arts education and makerspaces, she said, but could change.

“It’s sort of like a piece of art — a work in progress — but, most importantly, we always want to know how the community wants us to show up for them and how they want to be creative and how they see themselves in this space,” Smith said.

Both Menache and Smith see The ArtsCenter as key to a downtown arts district in Carrboro that could attract visitors and customers with its creative vibe and local shops and restaurants.

Elected town leaders have also supported that vision, although it wasn’t always certain The ArtsCenter would remain in Carrboro, Menache said. The Roberson Street building was the last in a line of potential new homes that never materialized.

Other spaces are already in place, he and Smith said, from the new civic center and library under construction at 203 S. Greensboro St. to Frank Gallery, Peel Gallery, a second Cat’s Cradle location, and the Center Theater Co., which took over the former ArtsCenter space.

An art walk trail and art installations along the Libba Cotten Bike Path would also be a great addition, they said.

What does the ArtsCenter offer?

▪ A digital lab with 3-D printers and makerspaces, including a space with sewing machines and laser and vinyl cutters

▪ Traditional arts, including ceramics, painting, dance and theater

▪ Performances and events, classes through the ArtSchool and ArtsCamp

▪ A partnership with Orange County Schools that provides an Artist-in-Residence program and live performances. The center matches arts experiences to the school’s curriculum to reinforce what the students are learning and give teachers new tools for the classroom.

What is the guardian angel?

“The Creative Spirit” is a life-size angel made of fiberglass who runs barefoot atop a gold sphere, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She carries a rod in one hand and Greek theater masks representing comedy and tragedy in the other.

The angel was created in 1987 by sculptor Bob Gaston for a UNC PlayMakers Repertory Co. production of “Look Homeward Angel.” Gaston also crafted other well-known Chapel Hill sculptures, including the pig at Crook’s Corner restaurant on Franklin Street, a set of legendary rhinos, and Ursula Pickle the hippo, whose disappearance in 1995 led to the “Great Hippo Hunt.”

Local sculptor Mike Roig recently worked with Gaston and Menache to give the angel a facelift.

“After all those years on the roof of the old ArtsCenter, it had lichen and squirrels had slept in it, and some of the fiberglass had eroded,” Menache said. Roig ”totally made a beautiful restoration of that.”

The ArtsCenter is looking for supporters

One-time and sustaining monthly donors are needed to continue The ArtsCenter’s mission of providing arts, crafts, performances and other creative opportunities to Orange County and the surrounding region, Smith said.

Learn more about its fundraising campaign, “Be an angel … support the ArtsCenter,” online at artscenterlive.org/support-us.

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