The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Gallery to bid on UConn property
Closed campus could become art center, gallery extension
TORRINGTON — The chance to bid on the 95-acre UConn-Torrington campus property became an artistic pursuit this week, when the Five Points Gallery responded recently to a “Request for Expression of Interest” from the University of Connecticut.
The gallery at 33 Main St., an anchor of the downtown business district, would not move to the campus location, said executive director Judith McElhone. Instead, if its bid is successful, she said the property would be an extension of the gallery and serve as an art center that would offer an artist-in-residence program.
“We envision a sculpture studio and a sculpture park.” McElhone said.
“We would nurture Connecticut artists,” she added, while also inviting nationally and internationally recognized artists to teach and show their work.
The UConn campus at 855 University
Drive is less than four miles from Torrington, McElhone noted, and offers a bucolic setting.
“It would get artists out of cities and let them work on their art,” she said.
The UConn Board of Trustees closed the regional campus in 2016 and put the property on the market. Last winter, the board offered the land to Torrington with a timeline of 45 days to accept the offer, which it declined. Mayor Elinor Carbone noted that the city had an interest in the outcome based on the donation of the land to the city from the estate of Julia Booker Thompson in the 1960s. The estate documents include a provision that requires that the land be used for educational purposes. The UConn bid documents stipulate that any proposed purchase must fulfill that requirement.
One interested party, Ed Advance, a regional education center, offered $250,000 for the property. In April, the trustees published the request for the bids in an effort to attract more than one interested party.
The art gallery’s board of directors learned of the opportunity to bid as the May 16 deadline was fast approaching. They toured the campus, and McElhone said they found the buildings were “beautifully maintained. It lends itself to arts and education,” she said.
Asked whether the nonprofit gallery would be able to match Ed Advance’s bid, McElhone said, “We can raise that amount, we can compete.
“The executive board is meeting feverishly to plan and get our ducks in a row,” she added.
The timeline for a decision for the property has not been set, according to UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz. “We’re still in the review and discussion stage,” she said.