Callanwolde looks to nearby church for expansion plan

ATLANTA, Ga. - Ask folks around Callanwolde Fine Arts Center about the need to expand their facilities, and you’ll get some quick answers.

"We at Callanwolde are bursting at the seams," says program director Nikita Raper. "I’ve made jokes that we could fit a couple more classes up in the attic…and I’m not sure that I’m actually kidding."

"We have a 200-person waiting list for our ceramics classes alone," adds executive director Andrew Keenan.

That’s why the nonprofit DeKalb County arts center initially launched a capital campaign called Build. Inspire. Grow. As previously reported by Good Day Atlanta, the original plan was to raise money to construct two new buildings on the Callanwolde campus: a pottery studio and flex arts building. But then, the church across the street at 999 Briarcliff Road went on the market — and Keenan says it became immediately clear that buying the building and using it as the expansion space made much more sense.

"It's a 28,500-square-foot building with 140 parking spaces," he says. "It’s a much, much better value than what we were going to do before."

Now, plans are in place to buy the church and transform it into the Mr. and Mrs. William C. Warren III building — nicknamed The Warren. According to the Callanwolde website, the new building will house dance, drawing, and painting programs, indoor performances, and will increase capacity for summer camps and veterans’ programming.

"We still have a little ways to go," says Keenan. "We need to raise about $2 million. Our goal is to do that before December."

For more information on the project, click here.