The town of Cary has opened a new cultural arts center. The official dedication for the Cary Arts Center isn't until August 13th. But it's already open and bustling with activity. The Brussels Chamber Orchestra is performing there this week. And kids of all ages are painting and sculpting in larger classrooms. Joy Ennis is the Festival Coordinator for the town. She says the new center gives the Cary Cultural Arts Program much more class space than it had previously.
Joy Ennis: "This I think gives us about 10 times the teaching space that we had before. There were camps that we had to put in other facilities, which were wonderful, but now we have dedicated arts facilities. We can cross-promote things and we can do like, ceramics can do something with the painting people and so there's lots of synergies that can be realized because we're all in one space. It opens up a lot of new avenues like textile teaching and woodworking, and it gives us a permanent theater space for our community. There's so many groups that are going to benefit from it. It's going to be such a benefit for everybody in the town. It means a lot especially to the revitalization of the downtown. It's really going to be a lynchpin for that. It expands the arts opportunities that we can offer to our citizens here in Cary just exponentially. "
The Cary Arts Center also features a gallery for local artists. The town renovated the 47,000 square-foot facility from the old Cary Elementary School for $13 million.