The Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge has begun interior demolition on the downtown building at 233 St. Ferdinand St.—better known as the Triangle Building—which will be its new home.
Construction crews began working last week on what is expected to be a yearlong, $2.5 million project. When completed in December 2020, the building will be known as the Cary Saurage Community Arts Center.
“Cary has been such a great philanthropist in the city and has been a consistent supporter of the arts council,” Arts Council Executive Director Renee Chatelain says. “So we’re excited about naming the building for him.”
The Arts Council kicked off the silent phase of a capital campaign three months ago and already has raised $1.9 million, thanks in large part to Saurage’s $1 million contribution for the naming rights.
A public phase of the campaign will kick off in January to raise the additional $600,000 needed.
In the meantime, the Capital Area Finance Authority is working with the Arts Council to finance the project, which will involve overhauling the two-story, mid-century building—once home to the district attorney’s office—into a 12,000-square-foot community arts space with a black box theater, recording studio, artist workshops and gallery.
The building will also have conference rooms on the second floor and a rooftop terrace, which can be used by artists for inspiration and will be available for lease to the general public for nighttime events.
A key focus of the building will be to provide local artists with an affordable space where they can work and collaborate.
“There are multiple master plans that have called for something like this but artists have no affordable spaces to be able to create work,” Chatelain says. “We are putting together a plan where they will either be able to work the front desk in return for 70 hours of studio space; or if they have a public art project for the community that will improve community engagement we may be able to grant the space to them at little or no cost.”
The new space will be more than twice the size of the Arts Council’s existing home at 427 Laurel St. in the Robert A. Bogan Firehouse, which it had outgrown.
The Triangle Building had been vacant for two years, before the Metro Council turned it over to the Arts Council in a cooperative endeavor agreement, that allows the organization to operate there for free.
