Sunday afternoon, members of the Wesleyan and Middletown communities gathered at 51 Green St. to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Green Street Arts Center. Those who attended the event, including President Doug Bennet and his wife Midge, were given “DIG THIS!” buttons and entertained by the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra.
The Green Street Arts Center project began in the late 1990s. For three years, the North End Action Team (NEAT), the city of Middletown, and the University worked together to raise money and plan the Center, which will be located in the former St. Sebastian School building.
“It’s thrilling,” Bennet said. “It’s absolutely thrilling.”
The groundbreaking ceremony celebrated the beginning of the renovation of the former school at 51 Green St. The interior of the building will be outfitted with performance, rehearsal, and studio spaces for dance, photography, theater, music, and other visual arts. Classes will be held every weekday from nine in the morning to 10 or 10:30 at night, with performances and other classes on weekends. Up until now, these classes were held on a more limited schedule in the Church of the Holy Trinity on Main St. With the completion of construction, the GSAC will have its own space.
The actual groundbreaking ceremony began at 4 p.m., with speeches from Peggy Busari, director of NEAT, Mayor Domenique Thornton of Middletown, Bennet, Pamela Tatge, director of the CFA, and Ricardo Morris, director of GSAC.
All speakers commented on the historical importance of the groundbreaking ceremony for GSAC and pointed out the collaboration that was involved in getting to this point. In his speech, Bennet mentioned that GSAC is the largest off-campus project for the University.
“Collaboration is the key,” Bennet said.
Morris commented in his speech that he was impressed that the GSAC project had survived and finally gotten to its current stage.
“This is like the Emmy’s for me,” Morris said. “I just have so many people that I need to thank, and I’m sure this isn’t even a complete list.”
Busari spoke about how GSAC would help to revitalize the community in the North End, and Thornton acknowledged the support that the government on both the local and state level had given to the project.
For the actual groundbreaking, since all of the renovations were indoors, there was not any actual ground to break. Instead, they planted a pear tree just outside the door to the building.
“I was writing something for a show that I have coming up,” said George Richardson, the vice president of an artist co-op in the North End. “I was writing about Middletown, and I read this article about the groundbreaking, and I realized, there’s no uncertainty anymore – it’s obvious that Middletown is changing.”
Plans for the Center include having Wesleyan faculty teach at the Center, having visiting artists to the CFA run a workshop at the GSAC in addition to their performances and master classes at the University.
“You all have kids now that will get what the kids then needed,” Busari said, referring to a time in the late ’90s when the North End was even rougher than it is today. “It’s time for the North End and Middletown to gather together as a community and know that this is something positive that’s happening.”
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