RUMFORD – Town and River Valley Growth Council officials are working to establish an arts center in the River Valley Technology Center.
And to get there, the River Valley Creative Arts Initiative group has succeeded in getting several instructors and administrators from Portland’s Maine College of Art to visit the town and the potential site next month.
“We’ve been working to get MCOA here for the past six months,” Town Manager Steve Eldridge said Thursday.
The arts initiative group and the art college’s creative community coordinator met in June to begin the discussion, which continued this month.
Eldridge said the college’s representatives will tour the fourth floor of the tech center, then discuss their thoughts with the arts group, Eldridge, River Valley Growth Council Director Rosie Bradley, the River Valley Chamber of Commerce and selectmen from several area towns.
Bradley plans a formal presentation about the area and the potential tech center site.
“Hopefully, they will be as excited about it as we are,” she said Thursday.
The group is hoping to turn the fourth floor into classroom space for the college, studio space for both visiting and area artists, and a site for marketing creations by local artists and artisans, Eldridge said.
Platz Associates of Auburn is working up estimated costs for refurbishing the floor so that it can be used, Bradley said. Eldridge said because much of it will be studio/art creation space, it would have a more open format than if used for some other purpose.
The growth council and the town are hoping that a creative economy bond issue will pass in November so that a portion of that money could be used for developing the space.
Eldridge said he has plans to go after other funding from Community Development Block Grant programs and through applications to a variety of foundations.
Tentative plans to use that portion of the former bag mill is part of the town’s overall goal to revitalize and diversify the downtown area.
Simultaneously with attempts to persuade the Portland art school to start an outreach program, Eldridge and Bradley are working on several other ideas that they hope will revitalize the area. These include a committee to restore historic Strathglass Park, a Downtown Revitalization Committee and consultant charged with making recommendations to improve the economy in the area around Congress and Waldo streets, and continued work to create a riverfront park and trail.
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