After 40 years, the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge is moving to a new home downtown, in the so-called Triangle Building on St. Ferdinand Street that formerly housed the District Attorney’s office.
The building, which will be renovated prior to the move, is roughly twice the size of the council’s longtime home at 427 Laurel St., and will include a community art space, recording studio, rehearsal spaces, artist workshops and gallery.
“We’re really expanding what we can offer to art organizations and artists where we didn’t physically have the space before,” says President and CEO Renee Chatelain says, adding the studio rooms will allow the council to “keep talent in Baton Rouge.”
A timeline for renovations has not been established yet, but she hopes they’ll be in the building by next summer.
The move was spawned by the Firehouse Project, during which Chatelain says the council learned of the Triangle Building vacancy.
On Wednesday evening, the Metro Council approved a cooperative endeavor agreement between the city-parish and the council that will allow the council to occupy and use the building rent free.
“For the past 40 years, the Robert A. Bogan Fire Station on Laurel Street has served as the community arts space, but this city’s art sector outgrew that location many years ago, and the Triangle Building will allow us to look progressively at the next 40 years,” Chatelain says.
