Get a look inside Fort Collins' Center for Creativity after its 4-year closure, renovation

After years in the dark, sunlight is once again streaming through the arched windows of Fort Collins' Center for Creativity.

The city arts hub at 200 Mathews St. recently wrapped up a roughly three-year-long renovation and will reopen to the public Saturday. The facility shuttered at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and remained closed as it completed pre-planned improvements and, later, started its larger renovation that was approved as part of the city's 2015 Community Capital Improvement Program.

The renovation involved the installation of a new staircase, a full revamp of the center's 3,000-square-foot community gallery space and two large meeting, or "flex" rooms and the addition of a smaller "flex" room in the building's lower level. Since the center's building was originally built as Fort Collins' Carnegie Library in 1903 and 1904, its large arched windows were also delicately restored as part of the project.

Until this renovation, the windows had been boarded up and painted over since 1978, when the building went from being the city's library to its museum, according to Eileen May, the new director of cultural services for the city of Fort Collins.

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The center's entrance is on the south of side of its building, beyond a new gate and through Library Park's Heritage Courtyard, which features historic Fort Collins structures like pioneer Auntie Stone and Antoine Janis' 19th-century cabins.

The walk "blends history with our future," May said, gesturing toward the Center for Creativity, which now boasts an all-new interior and space for Fort Collins artists and creatives to converge.

The center's community gallery is meant to be more affordable to artists with weekly rental rates of $550 and smaller gallery options starting at $100 per week, according to the city's website. Its flex rooms are also free for community members to meet in on a first-come, first-served basis during the center's regular hours, May said. A lower level office in the center will once again serve as the home of FC Public Media, a local public access television station.

The Center for Creativity's grand reopening celebration

When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday

The city of Fort Collins welcomes the public back to the Center for Creativity for a day of family-friendly activities and performances. The free event will include a sound bath, yoga, live music, arts and crafts opportunities and more.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Peek inside this Fort Collins arts hub for the first time in 4 years