Following quickly on the heels of last week’s news that Soho art residency program Recess is expanding to Red Hook, the Times‘ Carol Vogel reports that nearby neighbor The Drawing Center (of 35 Wooster Street) is going to expand as well—albeit much, much closer to home.
The celebrated (Art Award-winning!) non-profit space, which has been in its current location since 1986, will be taking over 2,000 square feet on the second floor of the building whose ground floor it now occupies. The expansion project is currently in its fund-raising phase, with just over half of the $8.6 million required for the project (designed by Claire Weisz and WXY Architecture + Urban Design), including $3 mil from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The new space will house all the offices that currently occupy the basement space, creating room for an education center and a second gallery down there.
The Drawing Center will cease on-site exhibitions and programing in July for construction, which is expected to last about eight months, with a reopening currently planned for March 2012. Add this to nearby Team Gallery’s current expansion from around the corner to a second space on that same block of Wooster, and the Soho gallery scene ain’t lookin’ so dire.
(ArtInfo)