New Arts and Innovation Center

This morning I joined a tour (organized by Aileen Klein of the Town Center Action Team and David Levy, Rockville's Chief of Long Range Planning and Redevelopment) of the soon-to-be-open VisArts Center and the already-open Rockville Innovation Center, both housed in the Arts and Innovation Center in Rockville Town Center, on the corner of Gibbs St and the main square, next to the library and above La Tasca Restaurant. Both promise to be very welcome additions to the Rockville community. Harriet Lesser, VisArts' Director of Exhibitions, led the tour of the two-level VisArts center, which houses several working artists' studios, a gallery (where the opening show on Comic Books & the Arts will be), a large events room, ceramics and photography labs, and studios for painting and drawing classes. The Center is scheduled to open September 30 and will be offering all kinds of art classes beginning this fall.

Lynne Benzion, Associate Director of Rockville Economic Development, Inc introduced us to the Montgomery-County-run business incubator on the 4th and 5th floors of the building. The center offers a well-located, well-appointed place for start-up businesses (with tele-conferencing plasma screens in every conference room and WiFi available throughout), and one in which tenants may also take advantage of programs that teach business skills and offer support with licensing, intellectual property, financing and other issues from the Center's several sponsors (including Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, P.A. law firm, Adventist Health Care, Montgomery College, and Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Company, LLC, a Bethesda-based accounting firm). There are already several tenants, some of whom are listed on the REDI website.