THE ARTSCENTER

Location: Carrboro, North Carolina
Project Size: 12,600 SF

The ArtsCenter has been a fixture of the Carrboro and Orange County community for years, providing arts-based programming via classes, performances, youth camps, and exhibits. Realizing an opportunity diversify and connect a wider audience to the wonders of artistic creativity, the ArtsCenter is crafting a new home that broadcasts their values of inclusivity, access, sustainability, and an embrace of traditional and non-traditional arts. The design leverages the limited buildable area of a natural site, using the stream buffer and sewer easement to create a compact footprint with ample connections to the outdoors.

A large, covered porch and outdoor/indoor communal stair welcome visitors and provide new programming opportunities for performances, plein air classes, youth camp activities, and more. Glazing frames views of the stream and wooded area, reinforcing the connection to the outdoors and putting on display the creativity within. The makerspace’s front-and-center location epitomizes the ArtsCenter’s pedagogical shift. Inside, the communal stair creates a central hub around which all studio spaces are directly linked and allows for a variety of informal performance and gathering activities.