Cultural Center of Cape Cod expands programming to HyArts campus in Hyannis
HYANNIS — The red-and-white post and beam barn perched at the center of the HyArts Campus at South and Pearl streets now has a new occupant as the Cultural Center of Cape Cod expands its programming to the campus in partnership with the town of Barnstable.
Early childhood education programs, such as nature-based art classes and music in the garden, will begin in the fall with learning coordinator and artist Stephanie King preparing to start teaching next week.
After years of stewarding the Hyannis campus, Elizabeth Jenkins, director of planning and development for the town of Barnstable, and her team, including Melissa Chartrand, arts and culture coordinator for the town, were excited to give new life to the HyArts campus and thought the Cultural Center would be the perfect partner for the job.
“We originally bought this collection of historic structures to give the arts community a place in the center of downtown Hyannis to come and convene, grow and find opportunities to help reflect the authentic nature of our place and support our businesses and the people that live here,” she told the Times. “(The Cultural Center’s) flagship space in Yarmouth is absolutely beautiful … We are just incredibly excited to think about bringing some of that energy here into Hyannis, especially when it comes to serving, you know, underserved populations, the youth of our community (and) to give them a space that they can find belonging and connect with the arts.”
On Tuesday morning outside the Guyer Art Barn, representatives of the town of Barnstable, the Cape’s art community and elected officials joined together in celebration of the Cultural Center’s new mission: to create a space for arts programming in Hyannis.
“Our flagship location in South Yarmouth is amazing and we do such good work and we serve people of all ages and backgrounds but we don't have the corpus of families and young people that Hyannis does,” Molly Demeulenaere, executive director for the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, said in an interview with the Times. “For us, it was a natural reason to choose Hyannis as a programmatic expansion … working toward families with multi-generational poverty … people looking for enrichment programs through the arts.”
King will be responsible for running programs at the barn alongside teaching classes based on her art, which consists of creating beautiful imagery from elements of the natural world such as wildflowers and seaweed. Outside of her work, other members of the Cultural Center, such as music director Adam Berndt, and guest artists, such as author Kwame Alexander, will lead programs focused on performing and literary arts.
“We need a place like this,” King said. “This is so unique. It's a historic figure in town where everyone knows the history, everyone feels that when they walk in. So immediately you have that feeling of this is a very safe place for everyone to learn, to express themselves however they feel in a creative way.”
In addition, one of the campus’s buildings, the garage studio, will become a publicly accessible flameworking glass studio for professional and amateur glass workers to create.
The Cultural Center is still fine-tuning all of what is to come as they develop programming based on community responses gained during a lengthy survey period in the months leading up to opening day. When speaking with community members, the Cultural Center found that many supported arts programming but found that they weren’t as accessible year-round.
“There's so many things to do in the summer and if it rains and you're inside, you can blow bubbles and be famous,” Demeulenaere said. “But what are we doing from October through May for those families and for those kids? Multigenerational programming and year-round opportunities stood out to us. And the fact that it was important, which is you know, we of course love to hear that. We believe in the transformative power of arts … that's a really important part of what we do.”
In looking toward what’s to come, Demeulenaere said she’s excited about being part of ushering in a new artistic chapter for Hyannis.
“We are going to paint a more colorful Cape Cod one brushstroke at a time,” she said.
Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and arts. She can be contacted at frowley@capecodonline.com.
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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cultural Center of Cape Cod brings programming to Hyannis
