The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County will take over a small part of Winston Square Park as part of its plan to remake the Sawtooth Building into a downtown arts center.
City officials agreed earlier this week to lease a piece of the park to the arts council for 99 years at $50 a year.
The space will add to the arts council's complex on the block -- the council already owns the Sawtooth Building on Marshall Street, and Hanes Brands has sponsored a new theater in the old AC Delco building next to the Sawtooth. Those two buildings will combine with a third building on Marshall Street and the leased piece of Winston Square Park to form the downtown arts center.
The arts council intends to turn the leased piece of the park into the new entrance to the downtown arts center, said Milton Rhodes, the president of the arts council. The center will open onto Spruce Street with a half-moon driveway built from Spruce onto the leased piece of park, Rhodes said, "where you can drop off children and older people who need a wheelchair or a walker."
"You come in the entrance to the arts center and you are on city property that's leased by the arts council," Rhodes said "Then you go into the center and most of the center -- all of the arts center -- is on private property, arts council property."
Tim Grant, the director of the Winston-Salem Recreation and Parks Department, said that the arts council's plans should not affect activities at Winston Square Park. The portion of the park to be leased is a 1,300-square-foot segment on Spruce Street, which he said is separate from the rest of the park.
The 1.5-acre park covers part of the block between Spruce and Marshall streets and includes a fountain, board-game tables and amphitheater. It has been host to children's plays, sculpture exhibits and concerts since it was built in 1982.
Grant said that the new driveway could help the park by giving drivers a place to drop off and pick up park visitors. He said that additional visitors to the arts center could mean additional visitors to the park.
Rhodes said that construction on the arts center is scheduled to start later this month and should be completed about June 2010.
The project is expected to cost $11 million. The arts council has raised $7 million, almost all from private donors.
Rhodes said that if donors do not give the remaining $4 million, the arts council will borrow it.
"But we are going to get the money," he said.
When the project is finished, he said, the entrance to the arts complex will have flipped from Marshall Street to Spruce Street. He said that the Sawtooth Building will still provide classroom space for the Sawtooth School for Visual Art. The building next to the Sawtooth will also be classroom space.
That space, formerly the home of My Cousin Vinny's restaurant, will become the Earline Heath King Sculpture and Pottery Studio, named for the internationally known sculptor from Winston-Salem.
Assistant City Manager Derwick Paige said that the city is hoping that theater shows and classes at the arts center will draw more people to downtown Winston-Salem.
"What they'll be doing is bringing bodies into the downtown area to spend money, to go to restaurants, maybe even to stay at some of the hotels," Paige said, "where before those events may not have even been occurring downtown."
Paige said that the city is hoping that having the theater downtown will attract art patrons from around and outside of Forsyth County.
The Sawtooth school offers art classes for adults and children. The school has been operating out of temporary classroom spaces in three locations around the city pending the renovation.
The arts council also is normally located in the Sawtooth Building. It has moved into temporary offices in the basement of the Chatham Building on Fourth Street. The Sawtooth school's administrators also are working out of the Chatham Building.
■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or lgraff@wsjournal.com.
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