A bold dream.

Take a forgotten building and bring it back to life. Fill it with children, adults, and lots of creativity. Create spaces to show the artistic talents of our community, inspire new artists, educate, see our neighbors, and make new friends.

Creative Haverhill is leading a capital campaign to transform the historic Cogswell School on South Main Street into a vibrant community arts center. Over the past few years, we’ve made significant progress—including acquiring the building and completing major structural repairs. We’ve installed underground plumbing, upgraded the electrical system from 200 amps to 1600 amps, and added a new transformer. The roof has been fully renovated, the HVAC system is mostly installed in the basement, and our new heating and cooling system is officially in place. We've also dug the pit for the future elevator, taking another big step toward accessibility.

These milestones mark exciting momentum in our phased renovations, bringing us closer to realizing our full vision. Once completed, the Cogswell ArtSpace will feature gallery space, multi-purpose classrooms for all ages, individual artist studios, and a shared makerspace with ceramics labs, a printmaking studio, a wood shop, and a small darkroom. This vision has been shaped by incredible community support—and we’re getting closer every day. Every dollar makes a difference. Consider donating and helping Creative Haverhill take the next big step toward opening the doors of the Cogswell ArtSpace.

Current opportunity to support the Cogswell ArtSpace Campaign

Creative Haverhill is excited to announce the next project that will bring Cogswell ArtSpace one step closer to opening its doors! We are embarking on a campaign to raise funds to install an elevator in our space, ensuring that everyone has access to all of Cogswell ArtSpace. The Reinvention of Cogswell removes the boundaries of this century-old school, allowing all abilities to access our full facility. The project will create access to the basement and second floors without the use of stairs.

Learn More & Support the Lift Cogswell Campaign

– Full Vision –

Community

The Cogswell ArtSpace is being developed with the concept of community at its core. It’s being built to serve community needs of having space to create, show, sell, and be together. Creative Haverhill’s intent is to serve all people through the programs, events, and spaces at the Cogswell ArtSpace.

Art

Haverhill is filled with a rich arts community, but has no central gathering spaces for artists, limited affordable studio spaces, few places to show and sell their work, and arts programs are lacking in schools. The Cogswell ArtSpace will become the central hub for our current and future artists.

preservation

Built in 1891, and operating for over 100 years, the Cogswell school’s educational impact on the community is significant. Its reach transcends generations of families who attended, taught, and worked at Cogswell. This building is a part of the fabric of Haverhill’s history, and must be preserved.

It's a bold dream. Take a forgotten building and bring it back to life. Fill it with children, adults, and lots of creativity. Create spaces to show the arti...

With 4 classrooms and a main hall, the first floor with house a community gallery space in the main hall, a juried professional gallery, community rental rooms, and multi-purpose art classrooms for all ages.

FIRST FLOOR

The basement will be transformed into a workers space with 2 ceramics studios, a wood shop, and a printmaking studio, all available for classes, workshops, field trips, and open studio hours.

Basement

Also with 4 classrooms and a main hall, the second floor will house youth art classrooms for arts and STEAM focused after school clubs and vacation camps, 6-8 individual artist studio rental spaces, and another community gallery to feature our studio and youth program artists.