Wyoming’s Home for Music, Art and Dance

How far would you have to go to find a community hub that brings music, art, dance and theater to life? Would you go all the way to Wyoming?

Before you say no: We don’t mean the one out West! You can find all this and more at the centrally located — if slightly tucked away — Wyoming Fine Arts Center (WFAC).

Lasting Arts Education

The Wyoming Fine Arts Center brings art to the community through accessible, affordable and welcoming programs. Teaching staff offer personalized, one-on-one music instruction for students of all ages. The weekly relationship between teaching artists and students create conditions for lasting music education, building skill, discipline, confidence and identity. Needs-based scholarships ensure that those benefits are available to anyone, regardless of family income.

Service to the community is an important part of how WFAC operates, which is evident in how the organization reacts to the needs of residents. When Wyoming Middle School had to close its afterschool child care program, WFAC quickly developed “After School, Let’s Art!” The new program (modeled after the existing “No School? Let’s Art!”) offered supportive care, enrichment, social time, arts education and more, just a quick walk down the street from the school.

A Historic Home

In addition to the arts education classes and programs, WFAC serves as a headquarters for five small nonprofit arts organizations: Bass Club Cincinnati, Cincinnati Contra Dance, The Flying Cloud Academy of Vintage Dance, Greater Cincinnati Guitar Society, and Cincinnati Civic Orchestra. Each uses the Wyoming Fine Arts Center as both a rehearsal space and a venue.

Originally built in the early 1900s as a home, the building that houses the Center served as the Wyoming Masonic Lodge until 1995, when Paul Bartel purchased the building and started a comprehensive renovation that would turn it into a community arts center. As a violinist, music educator and owner of the Baroque Violin Shop, Bartel saw the value of weaving the arts into the fabric of a neighborhood. He also established the scholarship fund that would set the standard for accessibility in the organization’s music lessons.

That standard is continued today thanks to both Bartel’s initiative and the support of the community through ArtsWave. “Support from ArtsWave allows us to steward this building as a resource,” says Brianna Matzke, executive director of the Wyoming Fine Arts Center. She notes that the same support allows WFAC to branch out, bringing classes into neighboring communities: “We actually offer free art classes at six Cincinnati Public Library branches every month. It’s the support of ArtsWave that makes that possible.”

In other words, it’s thanks to you.

This blog post is based on content from “Better Know Cincy‘s Arts,“ featuring the Wyoming Fine Arts Center.