Construction crews at the $18 million Paul J. Schupf Art Center in downtown Waterville, Maine, are in the final weeks of completing the new facility before it will be unveiled to the public Dec. 17.
The 30,000-sq.-ft. center at 93 Main St., developed by Colby College and Waterville Creates, will house the city's visual and performing arts offerings under one roof and include three cinemas as part of The Maine Film Center.
"It is going to bring people into the heart of downtown all the time," said Brian Clark, Colby's vice president of planning, who added that people will flock to Main Street "not just to shop or to have dinner or get a drink, but to really have a great cultural experience."
Clark and Paul Ureneck, Colby's director for commercial real estate, led a media tour of the center Oct. 25 with George Sopko, the college's director of media relations.
Although Waterville Creates' President and CEO Shannon Haines was unable to attend, she later said in a phone interview with the Waterville Morning Sentinel that she and others cannot wait to move in.
"It's going to be, I think, a huge moment for Waterville and for the community that has supported the arts for decades," Haines said.
The center is named for Paul J. Schupf, an art collector and longtime Colby benefactor who lived in Hamilton, N.Y., and died in 2019 at age 82. He also served as an emeritus trustee of the college, and gave a naming gift for the center, the amount of which he asked not to be revealed.
Construction On Schedule Despite Issues
Ureneck, who oversees all of Colby's construction projects downtown, said the building of the Schupf Center has stayed on target.
"Considering COVID, supply issues, labor issues, all in all we did very well," he told the Morning Sentinel.
Construction on the project began in 2021 by Landry/French Construction, in Scarborough, Maine, following demolition of The Center building, which had been on the site.
After Colby President David Greene arrived in Waterville eight years ago, he held a series of meetings with city officials, arts advocates, businesspeople and others to help decide what the city needed to thrive and succeed. They concluded that rehabilitating vacant buildings, drawing more people to live and work downtown, and strengthening and supporting the arts and businesses already in the city were the top priorities, according to Colby officials.
Shortly after, the college began buying and rehabilitating buildings, in addition to erecting new ones, which led others to follow suit, the Morning Sentinel reported.
Art Center Built With Many Compelling Features
Constructed at the crossroads of Main Street and Castonguay Square, Waterville's new Schupf Art Center will encompass a series of attractions and amenities, along with striking architectural designs that reveal the diversity and vitality of the spaces within.
- The Ed Harris Box Office, just inside the front entrance on Main Street, will offer tickets to all visual and performing arts events, including those at the Waterville Opera House, Maine Film Center and nearby galleries.
- A giant glass curtain wall on the first and second floors of the arts center faces Castonguay Square to the south. The design will allow visitors to sit at tables or in a mini-living room overlooking the square. Called The Hub, the area is a work and gathering space named for Colby graduate Mark Hubbert, who donated to the effort. Free, public Wi-Fi also will be available throughout the entire building.
- Glassed-in spaces on the ground floor for the Ticonic Gallery and Studios, as well as classrooms and a workspace with eight pottery wheels and two kilns, will give members of the Clay Studio access 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- The three cinemas — sized small, medium and large — on the second level of the Schupf Art Center will seat 24, 46 and 120 patrons, respectively. Clark told the Kennebec news outlet that the small theater may be available to rent for home-theater events, children's birthday parties and similar activities.
- A concessions stand, cafe tables and a lounge also will be on the second level, as well as a glass wall overlooking Main Street, and a skywalk leading to an expanded Waterville Opera House lobby. Additionally, a mural will be featured on one large wall created by Tessa O'Brien, a visiting artist with the Lunder Institute for American Art who works in the Greene Block + Studios across Main Street from the Lockwood Hotel.
- On the same level is Studio 1902, a flexible space designed to be rehearsal space for the Opera House. It will include a mirror and bar along the wall and a "sprung" floor for dance and theatrical productions.
- Prominently situated within the Schupf Center building is the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art, considered a Colby College Museum of Art expansion onto Main Street. The gallery has its own mechanical systems, including air handling for housing high-end art. Clark told the Kennebec news source that bringing the college's art museum "down to Main Street is huge [and will] make it accessible in a way it never has been."
- The Waterville Creates offices, including those for the Maine Film Center, Opera House and Ticonic Gallery and Studios, are on the basement level, along with electrical, sprinkler, IT and other mechanical rooms.
"[The Schupf Art Center takes] producers and creators of art into the public sphere," Clark added. "Waterville Creates is all about arts experiences for everyone."
City, College Each Seeing Growth Spurt
Colby College and Waterville Creates collaborated to raise the $18 million needed for the Schupf Center, and Elm City 93 LLC, a subsidiary of Colby, will run, maintain and pay taxes on the building, according to Ureneck.
The college, one of the top five taxpayers in Waterville, has invested $85 million in the downtown over the last few years, Clark told the Morning Sentinel. That is out of the total of $200 million staked in the city's development during that time. He said Colby's commitment from the beginning was to purchase and rehabilitate properties and keep them on the tax rolls.
The Schupf Center construction nears completion as the $11.2 million downtown revitalization also is set to wind up in November. That project includes transforming one-way traffic on Main and Front streets to two-way, and improving intersections, sidewalks, and landscaping to make the city safer and more user-friendly.
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