Officials at The Rye Arts Center have unveiled preliminary plans to create a dramatic two-building campus on Milton Road that will allow them to significantly upgrade and expand the center’s many programs and exhibits.
A new contemporary structure being designed by Spring Architecture + Design in Westport, Conn., is a work in progress, but may include expanded gallery space, a “Teen Zone,” workshops for modern arts — including podcasting, digital production, and virtual reality — and room for more traditional pursuits, like jewelry making and sculpture.
The building would be constructed at 25 Milton Road, a property that was donated to the arts center in 2022 and is adjacent to the center’s current home at 51 Milton Road. The new structure also may include green space and a sculpture garden at the rear of the 2.1-acre property.
There are no plans to expand the existing arts center, but that building would be updated and reconfigured to better serve art and music students, who range in age from children to senior citizens, said arts center Executive Director Adam Levi.
Opened in 1960, the arts center is now “an arts center in an old building,” Levi said. The facility is crammed with vibrant and practical, but tired, art studios, practice rooms, and performance spaces that serve the 3,000-plus people who enroll in 150 classes and workshops annually.
Levi said a detailed plan for the new campus will not be developed until zoning issues have been resolved. The arts center petitioned the Rye City Council on Jan. 8 to amend the Rye city code to permit “Arts Center Use” to be conducted on the land, which sits in a residential zone. The council voted to continue its discussion of the proposal and hear public comments at its meeting on Jan. 29.
Longtime arts center supporter Robert Weiner bought the former residence of the late Rosaleen O’Neill at 25 Milton Road — a yellow 2.5 story-house, built in 1865 — in January 2021 for $1.6 million and gave it to the Rye Arts Center the following year.
Weiner told The Record he donated the property because he hopes the expanded Rye Arts Center will be able to offer even more programs, “which nourish children and enrich their lives.”
While the expansion would provide opportunities for more programming, the project’s emphasis is on increasing quality not quantity of offerings, said Tom Stokes, president of the arts center’s board of directors.
The arts center leases its current site from the city for $1 a year, but is responsible for maintenance and operating costs, such as a recent $70,000 bill for elevator repairs, Levi said. Parking at 51 Milton Road that serves the center, Rye Recreation Park, and the nearby Blind Brook Lodge apartments is owned by the city. Additional parking and measures to control traffic flow will be a part of any expansion plan, Levi said.
No decisions have been made about how facilities would be arranged on the new campus, because the organization’s leadership wants to be sure it is “doing our homework” first, said Levi. Arts center leaders are receiving input from city leaders, neighbors, supporters, and arts center users on everything from programming to traffic flow, and they will continue to do so, he said.
“We want to fit in with the community and have the vibe of an arts center,” Levi said.
The fundraising needed to create the RAC campus will not begin in earnest until the project has received city approval to move forward, Levi said. That approval would enable the center to create solid construction and fundraising plans, he said.
