Our Story

In early 1997, Middletown’s planning office brought together community members including Wesleyan leadership to begin to discuss ways to revitalize Middletown’s North End. In January 2000, a housing redevelopment plan was unveiled at a community forum where the arts surfaced as both a possible vehicle for revitalizing the North End, and as a stabilizing feature of the housing plan. Wesleyan’s Center for the Arts, wishing to extend the richness of the arts at Wesleyan into the greater Middletown community, worked with Wesleyan leadership to envision what it might take for the University to take the lead in the creation of what is now the Green Street Arts Center.

To build visibility and momentum for the GSAC, Wesleyan and its community partners launched a series of pilot classes, workshops, and performances in the fall of 2002. Using venues such as Macdonough School and the Church of the Holy Trinity, classes in dance and music for pre-school and school-age children were held, as well as a series of free participatory workshops for families on Saturdays. The Green Street Arts Center has also sponsored a youth documentary video project for middle school children and a children’s a capella choir, the NEAT Notes.

While serving as an anchor for the neighborhood, activities at the Center are open to people from throughout the region. Some programming will extend from the Wesleyan world arts curriculum, providing a vital link between the community and the University.

▲The Green Street Arts Center is a project of Wesleyan University supported by an advisory board of prominent community and business leaders from Middletown, as well as Wesleyan faculty and staff.

▲Green Street is brand new! We opened our 12,000 square foot facility in January of 2005. Our beautiful building features state-of-the-art recording, dance and art studios, a black box theater and computer/media labs.

▲Adults and children from 25 different towns in Connecticut attend Green Street classes.

COME TO OUR OPEN HOUSE: Please join us on Sunday, September 10, from 2–5pm, for an Open House, where you’ll have the chance to meet our teaching artists and sample their work. Try your hand at Digital Photography, move your feet to a Latin beat; or, if you just want to look, Green Street staff will gladly give you a tour of the center. Light refreshments will be served.  Register at the Open House and receive a FREE Membership!