Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts
Location
On the corner of Fifth and Broad in historic downtown Gadsden sits an unusual building. Its triangular shape and enormous cylinder have come to stand for the educational opportunities and endless entertainment the arts bring to a community. The Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, under the direction of the Gadsden Cultural Arts Foundation, opened in 1990, and today more than 100,000 people visit the exhibits, performances and functions held at the Hardin Center each year.
The Hardin Center brings all genres of visual art to Northeast Alabama through three galleries that feature changing exhibits. The galleries showcase regional and nationally traveling exhibitions to allow the public the opportunity to view and be exposed to a diverse range of visual art.
The Hardin Center produces and sponsors concerts and performing arts events throughout the year. The highly popular Courtyard Concert Series highlights local talent in the Hardin Center’s New Orleans-style outdoor courtyard. Featuring trompe l’oeil murals, gas lamps, plantings, and fountains, the courtyard is the perfect setting for dining and entertainment during the concert series that runs April through October.
Imagination Place Children’s Museum is a hands-on environment in which children learn through experiential play. Its main exhibit is a child-size town including a bank, grocery store, doctor’s office, construction site, veterinary clinic, and more. Children are encouraged to use their imaginations to explore elements from the adult world brought down to a child’s scale. Imagination Place also includes a toddler play area, and a science hall with changing educational exhibits. Imagination Place staff also spend much of their time with special camps, activities, and programs, both inside the Children’s Museum and off-site in area schools.
More that 400 students take a weekly lesson in virtually every form of the arts through the Gadsden Community School for the Arts, housed inside the Hardin Center. The highly qualified instructors teach everything from ballet and stringed instruments, to painting and pottery.
The Coosa Valley Model Railroad occupies a permanent spot on the Hardin Center’s second floor. This 72-foot long model is a replica of Gadsden in the 1950s. It consists of working trains and tells the history of Gadsden through built to scale structures.
The Hardin Center is also used as a space for community events. There are several rooms available for the public to rent for any type of function.
The Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts brings all forms of the arts to Northeast Alabama through the many programs, projects and activities housed within its walls and throughout the community through outreach. For the most current information on the Hardin Center and its programs, projects, and activities, visit http://www.culturalarts.org/