Harwood Arts Center
The Harwood Arts Center, above, borders the Eighth & Forrester Historic neighborhood and often has art installations scattered on the property for all to see. This recent installation featured acrylic snowflake art in the front.
The Harwood Arts Center began life in 1925 as a Methodist boarding school for girls. The historic building is a two-story H-shaped configuration with a red brick facade and Neoclassical detailing. Neoclassical Revival tends to emphasize the separate identities of each of its parts. If you’ve ever been in The Harwood, you see how the H-shape creates different separate but connected inside corridors; one section houses the Escuela del Sol elementary school, other sections have artists’ studio spaces; there is a large cafeteria in another section, and gallery spaces in other corners of the building.
The Harwood has evolved into a vibrant artists’ community, serving a broad audience of youth and adults with a variety of programs, including a darkroom rental, art classes, artist exhibitions and community outreach projects.
The Harwood Arts Center recently expanded to include the old adobe church, below, which was refurbished and re-purposed into The 6th Street Studios. With high ceilings and east-west light, it’s another great downtown art exhibition space.