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Arsenal Centre for the Arts

The Arsenal Center for the Arts opens doors to excite and inspire diverse audiences and artists to create, appreciate, participate and grow through the arts. It is the culmination of a long-time dream and many years of hard work to establish a vibrant, multidisciplinary center that would be a home for the arts serving on the west side of the Charles River in Greater Boston.

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Photo by: Mimi Bernardin
The Arsenal Center was built by Watertown Arts on the Charles, which incorporated as a non-profit in 1998 to plan, raise support for, and operate an arts center that would serve Greater Boston. The driving force behind the effort was a group of citizens who had secured the long-term use of a building for conversion into an arts center under the terms of the 1998 redevelopment of the Army arsenal in Watertown. Building 312 was transformed into a modern, well-equipped, multi-use facility, and we celebrated its grand opening in September 2005.

The Arsenal Center for the Arts occupies 30,000 square feet of space on three floors. It houses two theatres, classrooms and workshop spaces, artist studios, gallery and exhibit space, rehearsal rooms, and informal gathering places. Its stunning and unique architectural design is ideally suited to support its mission of an inter-disciplinary arts center. This mix of interior venues provides a home for three resident companies (New Repertory Theatre, Watertown Children’s Theatre, The Quilters’ Connection) and regular performing troupes such as Improv Jones. The Center also offers its own programming consisting of art exhibits, classes and workshops for adults and children, concerts and other staged events, plus literary presentations and other discussion opportunities.

The Center’s spaces are also available to rent for corporate meetings, events by other non-profits, performances by other theater companies, and family events such as children’s birthday party workshops.

Community commitment to the Arsenal Center for the Arts was demonstrated prior to and since opening by the more than $6.5 million donated to The Campaign to Build the Arsenal Center for the Arts by members throughout our broad community; by early establishment of a membership/donor program; and attendance at off-site programming prior to the building’s completion. Regional support came from businesses small and large, and numerous individual donors made contributions that were truly meaningful to them. Countless hours of volunteer time and effort were given by the Board and many others. The Arsenal Center for the Arts epitomizes a grass roots effort that grew to bear tangible results, demonstrating the community’s enthusiasm for the project and the success that continued commitment can achieve.