"Today, the Work Center facilities offer two very important features—housing and studio spaces," said FAWC Executive Director Hunter O’Hanian. "The studios are used by the Visual Arts Fellows in the winter and become classrooms in summer. Winter Fellows, summer students and faculty use our housing. In addition, the Returning and Collaborative Residents use the housing and studios. The essential core of the reconstruction plan is to create and improve the spaces that support the artists and writers who stay and work here. Over the past few years, we have spent more than $250,000 to catch up on deferred maintenance and replace and modernize equipment and building elements. We’ve also upgraded our public spaces such as the Hudson D. Walker Gallery and the Stanley Kunitz Common Room. The time has come to create and improve spaces that directly relate to the work that is done by the more than 1,000 artists and writers who come each year to work here at FAWC."

The critical focus of the reconstruction plan is a new structure which will connect the easternmost side of the Common Room Building and the former Trapshed Building. This new structure, two stories in height, with a complete basement for storage and mechanical services, will add an additional 2,200 sq. ft. of space. The first floor of the structure, 750 sq. ft., will be used for a permanent print shop. The second floor will contain two new studios of approximately 375 square feet each. A third new studio will be added on the second floor of the Common Room Building. These expansions will allow for a ventilated and fully equipped modern print shop to serve the Winter Fellows and summer students alike. The existing print room will be converted into a larger dark room facility.

With the relocation of the storage area to the basement of the new building, the existing storage room and one studio will be reconfigured to create a Fellow’s Lounge and permanent computer facility. Finally, the first floor living unit (unit 11) in the Days Lumber Yard Building will be converted into a library and meeting room. As a result, the entire office area on the first floor of the Days Lumber Yard Building will be redesigned to meet the demands of growing programs. The Cottage at 6A Fishburn Court will be replaced with a new two-family structure built on the existing footprint with a basement for additional storage.

"I think these plans will ready FAWC to meet the demands of its programs," says Board Co-Chair, Hatty Walker Fitts, daughter of FAWC founder Hudson D. Walker. “When we’re finished, we’ll have vastly enhanced places for people to work. Our own resources will be dramatically increased and improved." The Fine Arts Work Center purchased its current site at 24 Pearl Street in 1972. The site had been a former lumberyard and plumbing supply retailer, and sold coal and firewood. In 1988, FAWC undertook a major reconstruction project and renovated several of the main buildings. The newest reconstruction plans may take more than two years to finish as FAWC attempts to complete these renovations with minimal adverse impact on the existing programs. Boston- and Provincetown-based architect Michael Prodanou, who served as architect on the 1988 changes, has been selected to design the renovation project. Presently, the Fine Arts Work Center owns nine separate buildings, containing 25 living units, 14 studios, a gallery, woodshop, auditorium, offices and a small darkroom and print shop. Those interested in assisting the Work Center in making these capital improvements should contact Executive Director Hunter O’Hanian.