The University is looking to integrate community programs with the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and the Medical Education Building, according to the most recent update to the Plan for Academic Enrichment, President Ruth Simmons' blueprint for academic improvement.
The Granoff Center has already established a relationship with the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts — the center will serve as the venue for the screening of student films next month. The University is also in talks with the Providence Public School District about developing collaborative programs, though a timeline for the partnership has not yet been established.
The Granoff center "has the potential to offer space in which alternative cultural expression could occur in ways that is not possible in the public schools because of limitations of space and resources," wrote Earnest Cox, administrator of fine arts and advanced academics for the Providence Public School District, in an email to The Herald.
The new Med Ed Building downtown also presents an opportunity for community outreach, wrote Marisa Quinn, vice president of public affairs and University relations, in an email to The Herald. "We recognize the opportunities to engage even more with the community and with the schools through (the building)," she wrote. "The new facility simply underscores our presence in Providence."
The University has already opened the Granoff Center to the Providence community for movie nights, tours and local artists' exhibitions, Quinn wrote.
"We like to say we are a home for creative thinkers," said Chira DelSesto, assistant director of the Creative Arts Council. "What we want to do is invite like-minded people to come in and learn and try something new," she said. "It's important for us not to be insular."
"Brown has articulated a desire to be a place for free exchange of ideas," Cox said. "What better way to encourage this exchange than by opening your space to the community at large?".
