Melissa Bailey Photo
The empty stage and classrooms of Fair Haven’s abandoned Strong School may come to life with dance and theater, according to a plan in the works by a coalition of arts groups.
The group of arts organizations led by Fair Haven activist Lee Cruz is in talks with the city about taking over the former Strong School at 69 Grand Ave. to create a new performing arts space.
Cruz (at right in above photo) led two dozen people through the 25,000-square-foot building the other day. The crowd included officials from Long Wharf Theatre, the West Haven Arts Council, a flamenco dance center, Music Haven, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, Mary Wade Home, CitySeed, New Haven Farms, and various community theater troupes. Some were curious visitors; others have signed on to take part in an unfolding plan to transform the building.
So far, 15 groups have submitted letters showing interest in renting space, according to Cruz.
“It’s like people were waiting for this to happen,” he said.
Chris Randall/ I Love New Haven Photo Illustration
The list includes small community outfits like Bregamos Community Theater and Arte, Inc., as well as the larger and more established Long Wharf Theatre. Long Wharf runs a small studio in the food terminal offering theater classes to adults and kids, but there isn’t enough space there, according to Managing Director Josh Borenstein. He said Long Wharf is interested in moving the program into two classrooms at Strong School.
The business plan for the so-called Strong Performing Arts Center, or SPACe, centers around the school’s 3,500-square-foot gymnasium, which comes equipped with a stage. The group aims to rent out that space as a theater, and turn the old classrooms into offices and studios for community groups.
Chris Randall/ I Love New Haven Photo Illustration
Tony Bialecki, the city’s deputy economic development chief, said the group has presented a promising idea for the historic building. Built in 1915 at the edge of the Quinnipiac River, the building still has separate entrances marked for boys and girls. It has been vacant for two years, since the city moved Strong School kids across town into the former Vincent Mauro School on Orchard Street.
The city has tried unsuccessfully to sell it in recent years. Seeking to fill a $3 million budget hole, the city put out a call in 2010 for bidders interested in buying the building. Only three bids came in. In the end, there was “no serious offer,” Bialecki recalled, and the city put the project “on the back burner.”
Bialecki met last Friday with Cruz about the prospect of the arts group taking over Strong. The two have been talking about the possibility for over six months, Bialecki said.
Chris Randall/ I Love New Haven Photo Illustration
Bialecki said talks are still preliminary: the two sides have not discussed possible terms of purchase or lease. He said the idea has promise, if Cruz and company can show they have the financial capacity and neighborhood support to make the idea work.
Bialecki said the city is looking for a way “to salvage a great, historic building and put it into use in some way.”
“While certainly money for the building is important, we’ve had it out there for a while,” he noted. The most important consideration in a proposal for that building would be the impact on the neighborhood, he said — both in terms of traffic but also in terms of economic development for the area.
“A good outcome” from the project, Cruz agreed, “would be a coffee shop coming in” to that end of town.
He made the remarks in the school gymnasium, as he pitched the crowd on joining the growing list of arts groups jumping in on the plan. Cruz, a neighborhood activist who lives next door to the school, said the plan has the support of the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Cruz said the group would need $60,000 to fix up the building before groups could start moving in. Repairs include creating a handicapped-accessible ramp and bathroom. After that, the group would need about $300,000 per year to cover operating expenses, Cruz calculated.
His tour drew interest from folks like Nicole Berube of CitySeed, who was checking out the walk-in cooler for possible use for a community-supported market.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Patrick Laffin and Jared Andrew Brown (pictured) run Square Foot Theater, a dance and theater organization in North Haven. They checked out the classrooms to see if they could feasibly hold a dance class.
Cruz told the group that the school was built as a bomb shelter, and thus can sustain lots of leaps and stomps.
Brown, who lives in the East Shore, said he likes the synergy of sharing the building with other organizations.
“The collaboration would be great,” he said.
Groups that have already issued formal letters of support include Arte Inc., a Fair Haven-based Latino arts and culture organization. Arte hopes to rent office space in Strong School, as well as use the hallways for gallery space, according to co-founder David Greco.
Rafael Ramos, founder and director of Bregamos Community Theater, said he would love to move his operation from Erector Square to Strong School. Unlike his current spot, Strong School sits right on a bus line, and is easily accessible from downtown and therefore from the rest of the city, Ramos noted. He said Strong School’s gym would make a great “small, intimate performance space.”
“It would create a multicultural center right in the heart of the neighborhood, accessible by foot, bike and public transportation,” Ramos said. “It won’t only bring more activity to the neighborhood; it would bring other folks to the neighborhood that might otherwise not venture” into Fair Haven.
“The good thing about the arts is it brings us together,” Ramos noted. “It shows us what we have in common.”
Anyone interested in joining SPACe can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
How about a survey of the many public schools built over the years to house such a venue for the arts?
Seems like the Erector Square facility is serving the purpose for community space. Sorry I don't buy Ramos' bus line thing as Erector Square is only a few blocks from a bus line.
What might seem nice to have might not be practical in the long run, given the fact that we are still in a recession. A building built in 1915 and was not renovated with the massive DeStefano school build (some would say overbuild) should tell people something about the costs to maintain and operate a facility like Strong.
The Strong School building is an asset, but in this economy, best to mothball it until the economy turns up a bit so that the community and city get the maximum benefit.