Partner Partner Content 50 years, 50 stories: Story #27 Riverside Arts Center

Promoting  the Arts in Ypsilanti

In 1994, following two years of research, public meetings and focus groups, the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority voted unanimously to purchase the historic Masonic Temple building on Huron Street for a community arts center. 

Today, nearly 20 years later, the Riverside Arts Center operates as a multi-purpose cultural arts venue in Ypsilanti that presents a year-round schedule of classes, dance performances, theater productions, art exhibits and special community events. At the Center local artists and cultural organizations also have access to studio space. Although an all-volunteer organization with a small operating budget, the Riverside Arts Center hosts nearly 16,000 visits annually.

In the past 15 years, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, its affiliate the Ypsilanti Area Fund, and its donors have provided more than $27,000 in grants to help the Riverside Arts Center improve its facilities and expand programming. A $10,000 grant in 2011- leveraged with in-kind support, salvaged materials and volunteer labor- made it possible for the Center to refurbish and repurpose its dance studio. With a newly renovated, more flexible space the Center can accommodate an array of new classes and events – more than doubling its educational activities. 

One of the many ways the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
supports all that is good in our community.

Read more “good” stories at: aaacf.org/stories