When a former Providence denizen, away for two years, recently decided to return home, he was stunned to discover that rents in the Renaissance City ain't what they used to be. Asking around to find out where someone priced out of Providence might look to live, the answer made him feel like Rip Van Winkle. "Pawtucket?! How long was I gone?"

Long more affordable than its cosmopolitan neighbor, Pawtucket is increasingly challenging the state capital for some of its cultural capital. Artists of every ilk have been wooed north by cheap rents, tax breaks, and a city bent on cultivating lasting relationships with creative types, to trade on the cachet -- and the entertainment and tourist dollars -- they represent.

Among the first to dream of Pawtucket's possibilities was a collection of concerned citizens and cash-strapped artists, whose imaginations revved when the city invited proposals for reincarnating the historic Armory, an eye-catching castle with crenelated turrets that boasts more than 43,000 square-feet of space. The group's vision of a performing arts center, to be anchored by the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (SFGT), the Music School of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and a performing arts high school, swayed local officials, and the Pawtucket Armory Association (PAA) was off and running.

Two years later, the association is picking up speed. In February, it retained Taylor & Burns Architects of Boston, known for creative, community-based reuse projects, to design the Pawtucket Armory Arts Exchange. On April 24, the Pawtucket City Council will vote on a measure to sell the building to the PAA for $1, contingent on the group's adherence to a development schedule.

The first step is renovation of the Armory's annex for SFGT's temporary use during the 2003 season. Construction of the permanent theatre, music classrooms, and rehearsal studios will proceed as fundraising allows (the public phase of PAA's capital campaign will begin next year), with an estimated start date of January 2004, and completion three years later.

Last week, PAA founding member Sam Babbitt proudly showed off the architects' renderings of the arts center. In addition to artists' work and performance space, the complex will feature a multi-use reception area, available to the community for everything from art openings to weddings. Fellow PAA member Jon Anderson sums up the project's vision: "The Pawtucket Armory Arts Exchange will be a 24/7 destination and resource for the city, the state, and the whole southeastern New England community."

Issue Date: April 19 -25, 2002