WOODBRIDGE — Woodbridge Township officials will receive grant funding to create the Avenel Arts Center at Station Village.
The $50 million project will transform the 27-acre former industrial site into mixed-use, community-centered, arts-related retail, according to information provided by the Middlesex County Office of Communication.
The village will include more than 50,000 square feet of arts-themed retail space and a performing arts center with artist studios, galleries and rehearsal and performance space.
On Aug. 1, County Freeholder Director Ronald G. Rios told a crowd of about 100 arts professionals and enthusiasts who attended the panel discussion, “Arts Partnerships: Building Better Communities Together,” the county is committed to enhancing and expanding arts, cultural and historic offerings to its residents and visitors and to working with private, nonprofit and municipal partners to strengthen these offerings. The panel was sponsored by State Theatre New Jersey and moderated by the theater’s President and CEO Tom Carto.
Rios explained that in 2013 he noticed a decrease in federal and state funding for the arts and proposed to the other members of the Freeholder Board about putting a public question on the November 2014 ballot asking voters if they wanted the freeholders to establish a Cultural and Arts Trust Fund to increase opportunities to participate in and experience arts, culture and history in Middlesex County, according to the statement. Voters overwhelmingly supported the initiative, he said.
“Through the Cultural and Arts Trust Fund, we look to provide all county residents with access to the broadest range of cultural activities, encourage awareness of and enjoyment of the arts and support cultural initiatives designed to preserve and promote the history of the county,” he said.
The county allocates $10 million each year to fund projects to improve, expand or build facilities and venues or to enhance arts and cultural programming. The other grant recipients were Carteret for restoration of the Vaudeville-era Ritz Theater into a modern 1,500-seat facility and New Brunswick for the New Brunswick Cultural Center to build a new performance space, rehearsal space and classrooms to be used by the State Theatre New Jersey, George Street Playhouse, Crossroads Theater, American Repertory Ballet and the Rutgers University Mason Gross School of the Arts.
