New David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center Will Foster Collaboration Between Artists and the Public

The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, a vibrant cultural hub that will offer performances and exhibits, residencies for visual, performing, and literary artists, and space for local cultural events, will open to the public in October at The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) in Tarrytown, NY.

The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center inhabits the transformed Orangerie, built by John D. Rockefeller in 1908 on the historic Rockefeller family estate and bequeathed to the nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1979 by Nelson Rockefeller. The long-dormant building will encompass a multipurpose performance and rehearsal space with an art gallery, artists’ studio, and gathering space.

Since 2012, The Pocantico Center’s Culpeper Summer Performance Series has offered mainstage music, dance, and theater performances that draw crowds of 200 local residents to the lawn of Kykuit. The new arts center will double the annual performance series from four to eight events, offered year-round with flexible indoor-outdoor seating. Pocantico’s other public programs, including open rehearsal, forums, lectures, and workshops, will also grow, and added studio and rehearsal space in the arts center will enable The Pocantico Center to expand by more than 50 percent its artist residency program to support the creative process.

“The Rockefeller properties in Westchester embody the family’s interests in the environment, historic preservation, farming and agriculture, and international engagement. A space for arts and culture is the final important piece to complete this extraordinary mosaic,” said David Rockefeller, Jr. “My hope is that the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center will inspire and nourish a new generation of artists by providing high-quality, low-cost access to cultural events and performances, as well as a venue for community arts activities.”

In accordance with the Fund’s commitment to sustainable development, the new arts center will be a “net-zero” building with the goal of achieving platinum LEED certification. A nearby solar panel array will produce more energy than the building consumes, and a rain garden will conserve water and reduce runoff pollutants. With these features, the David Rockefeller Center will also serve as an educational model of low-carbon development for students and other visitors.

“The new David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center will be a reflection of values long held by both the Rockefeller family and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund,” said Stephen Heintz, president and CEO of the RBF. “The addition of the arts center will fulfill our vision of Pocantico as a multidisciplinary campus that inspires the creativity and imagination needed to build a more just, sustainable, and peaceful world.”