NEW GLOUCESTER – The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program has awarded $1.5 million in loan funding to Fiddlehead Center for the Arts for a new permanent home in Gray Village.

The funds will be used to purchase and renovate an existing building in Gray at 25 Shaker Road for the arts and educational service facility. The center currently rents space at Pineland Center in New Gloucester.

The educational programs in arts and sciences serve all age groups.

Fiddleheads plans to move next spring.

Jacinda Cotton-Castro, executive director of Fiddlehead Center for the Arts in New Gloucester, said by telephone that the purchase of the commercial building in Gray Center will become the permanent home for the program’s future.

The newly renovated space will include four private music rooms, a clay studio, performing arts and theater room, science exploration room, a library with a graphic arts lab and tutoring center, FiddleStarts pre-school and other expanded classroom spaces.

The space will include a commons area where community members will come together for exhibitions, lectures, and social events.

“This is creative economy. We hire independent contractors and staff to serve our programs,” Cotton-Castro said.

Fiddleheads moved to the Pineland Campus from Gray to rent a building where program offerings and participation soared.

Two Century 21 grants were awarded in a partnership including SAD 15, Pineland Farms and Fiddlehead Center for the Arts, so Gray and New Gloucester children could find a wide range of enrichment and educational offerings after school. More than 4,000 people have participated in the programs to date, Cotton-Castro said.

A summer program brings children for art, dance and music offerings.

Fiddlehead Center for the Arts will celebrate its fifth anniversary from a startup adventure initiated by two New Gloucester women, Cotton-Castro and Mary Jo Marquis, who wanted local after school programs in artistic enrichment for their children and area youth rather than travel distances to find opportunities.

Marquis is now the executive director of a second site for Fiddlehead Center in Scarborough.

“We need to be sustainable in the future. We are seeking partners to help us,” Cotton-Castro said. A $600,000 capital campaign was recently launched by Fiddleheads to help raise funds to offset borrowing, she said.