Drive On to Raise $50K for Future Cogswell Arts Center

Arts and culture organization Creative Haverhill Tuesday launched an online campaign to raise $50,000 to renovate the former George F. Cogswell School, Bradford, into an arts center.

The group must raise the money in order to receive a matching amount from quasi-public MassDevelopment’s Commonwealth Places program, creating Cogswell Arts Center.

“Haverhill really needs a space like this,” said Reinvent Cogswell’s Tina Fuller. “The city is undergoing a renaissance and a cultural center like this is key to the further development of the quality of life here in Haverhill.”

The groups will use a platform called Patronicity to raise money to renovate the 1891 school building into a community artspace. The renovation would replace outdated electrical, plumbing and heating systems and “make it accessible to the public through cultural experiences that will strengthen the community.” The campaign faces a midnight, Jan. 20, 2017 deadline

The new art space will include studio, gallery and community gathering spaces for local artists to meet and show their work and classrooms to encourage creative programming.

“MassDevelopment is pleased to support a project that will build on Haverhill’s downtown revitalization efforts, including the nearby Transformative Development District,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones. “This art space will not only preserve a historic city building, it will also provide the community with an inspiring and creative place to engage with the arts.”

MassDevelopment, under guidance from agency fellow Noah B. Koretz, led a series of future redevelopment vision sessions with Utile Architecture and Planning of Boston which produced an urban design study plan earlier this year for the Merrimack Street Transformative Development Initiative (TDI) district. As WHAV reported last June, the concept would, according to Economic and Planning Director William Pillsbury Jr., “complete the task of urban renewal” that began 50 years ago.

Donations may be made via Patronicity.