After finishing construction and opening to the public three years ago, the Falmouth Arts Center is about to expand. The Falmouth Artists Guild, the organization that calls the center home, received a grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund last week, which will enable it to move ahead with its plans to finish and open two new floors of classroom and exhibition space.
“We just need the space,” says Suzy Bergmann, executive director of the Artists Guild. “That's what's been holding us up. We have definitely outgrown this space.”
The need to expand was foreseen years ago, when plans for the Arts Center were being drawn up. Rather than limiting itself to one or two floors for the duration, or waiting until it had raised enough money to open the desired three-story building all at once (after a fundraising process that had already gone on for a decade), the Guild constructed the new building with all three floors, but only opened the ground floor initially.
Since then, the basement and second-story spaces, with much of the electrical, plumbing, and other hardware already in place, have been waiting for another influx of funding. The MCFF grant, in the amount of $63,000, will allow completion of the basement, which will house a dedicated space for ceramics, glasswork, printmaking, and other hands-on activities.
“We're really happy about that,” says Bergmann. “That will be a good way to get more young people into the organization.”
Before the basement can be opened to the public, though, the building's elevator will need to be installed. That process will not be as costly or disruptive as it may sound. Knowing that a multistory public building is required by state law to have an elevator, the Guild included it in its initial plans. What is now an unassuming wall hides a three-story shaft, ready for the final steps necessary to transform it into a functioning elevator system.
As for the third and final phase of the Arts Center plan—the finishing of the second floor—that will have to wait for another round of fundraising. The Guild will have its hands full for the time being, completing the elevator and basement, which are both expected to be open by next spring or summer.
“It's going to allow us to offer more to the public,” Bergmann says of the imminent construction, and that which will follow. “We're definitely nearing the homestretch.”
