Facilities and Principal Venues
The Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts, located in the heart of downtown Winston-Salem at 251 North Spruce Street, anchors our complex of arts and culture facilities, which we call the “Arts Campus”. The Arts Campus extends one block north to include The Arts Council Extension (the ACE Building) at 419 North Spruce Street.
Our venues have hosted and staged numerous major cultural festivals and series, including The National Black Theatre Festival, the RiverRun International Film Festival, the Hispanic League’s Fiesta and Bookmarks’ annual Festival of Books and Authors.
Our Arts Campus contains several dynamic, multi-functional, venues for performances, exhibitions and other community events, as well as administrative facilities that are the “home” to several arts organizations.
The links below lead to descriptions of our Arts Campus facilities and their principal venues. Where theatre, dance, music, film, visual and other arts experiences entertain, educate, enrich and inspire. Where diverse people converge throughout the year to share those experiences, fostering connections that build bonds and a spirit of community among them.
The original structure that became the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts in 2010 is over 100 years old. It was once the home of Shamrock Mills, which later became Hanes Hosiery, predecessors of today’s Hanesbrands Inc. It had been abandoned for many years when we acquired it and made it the centerpiece of a strategic renovation and construction project that culminated in 2010. It has been a key factor in the revitalization of downtown Winston-Salem.
That 2010 project also included the construction of Hanesbrands Theatre in an adjoining previously-abandoned building. In 2019, we completed a transformational renovation of the Milton Rhodes Center to create several new destination venues and to enhance several others.
Our Arts Campus is indeed becoming “the community’s artistic living room”.