Mill Street Loft is a multi-arts educational center based in downtown Poughkeepsie serving thousands of Hudson Valley residents and their families. A summarized history is listed below. (a brief video of our 30 years)

Mill Street Loft History: The 2000’s • The 1990’s • The 1980’s

The 2000’s

• Project AWARE (Adolescent Women Are Realizing Empowerment), a sister program to PASWORD, was born in 2002 to serve teen girls in the City of Beacon. Today with nearly 400 graduates, girls move to womanhood through a culminating “Rites of Passage” ceremony witnessed by family, friends & community.
• The PASWORD and Project AWARE Alumnae Council first active in 2002, is committed to creating opportunities for young voices to be heard, addressing key personal, community and world issues. Program graduates create and produce public performances, nationally distributed Public Service Announcements, and are trained as peer mentors and community leaders.
• In 2004 Habilidad (“abilities”) was created as an extension of Project ABLE to serve the growing population of Hispanic/Latino youth from Poughkeepsie Middle and High schools. Bi-lingual artist-educators work with youth on job training and life skills activities everyday after school.
• In 2005 Mill Street Loft’s current facility and surrounding land were purchased and launched the first phase of its new Capital Campaign to provide building renovation, additional space for growing program needs.
• The first phase was completed in 2007 with a new parking lot, landscaping and entrance off of Pershing Avenue.
• Summer 2007 saw the start of the Junior Art Institute for students ages 11-14. It provides skill-building in drawing and painting for those interested in attending the Art Institute.
• PASWORD and Project AWARE Alumnae represented their schools at the United Nations International Day of Peace in 2006 and 2007 in New York City, and were hosted at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck for a week of personal and artistic exploration and discovery.
• Students and artists from The Art Institute participated in our first international art study tour in Mexico during August 2007.
• Classes and exhibits were offered at the St. Margaret’s Historic Site in Red Hook, NY offering area residents a northern satellite in summer and fall of 2007.
• The Arts For Healing partnership program with the Vassar Brothers Medical Center, serving children with acute and chronic diseases and their families, was launched in 2007.

Plans have been drawn to create an environmentally-friendly building expansion to include additional studio space, a dark-room facility, digital design studio, multi-purpose black box theatre and more exhibit and gallery space. A positive feasibility study was completed in 2008.

For more information about Mill Street Loft And its programs contact the Program Coordinator, 845-471-7477 x 18.

45 Pershing Ave., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601,
(845) 471-7477, FAX: 471-7507