When first conceived, organizers were exuberant about the possibilities a reopened historic opera house on Newport’s Washington Square would bring to the community.
The Newport Performing Arts Center project received more than $4.2 million, second largest of nine grants from a 2014 Creative and Cultural Economy Bond. Randy Rosenbaum, then executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, said renovating and reopening this “wonderful historic theater” would “contribute to the vitality” of not only Newport, but the region, and “create a significant number of jobs and year-round economic activity.”
More than a decade since receiving that grant, and nearly 25 years since this project began, work to reopen the theater appears stalled, fundraising has been reduced to a trickle, and many promises of when the theater would be reopened have been broken.
WhatsUpNewp has taken an in depth look at this project, reviewing years of 990 financial reports and other documents, and reaching out to Performing Arts Center officials, city officials, the listed architect and contractor, the state Council on the Arts, and others to understand what is happening with this highly visible project and future expectations.
Because of its high visibility and reliance upon public support this project continues to attract significant public attention.
In a series of stories over the next couple of weeks, we’ll review what we’ve learned and continue to reach out to those who have so far not responded to our questions. Melissa Quinn, listed as managing director and the only paid employee of the Newport Performing Arts Center, has responded, as has Todd Trebour, current executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts.
Those not responding include John Cratin, listed as the president of the Newport Performing Arts Center; Architect Mohamad Farzan of NewPort Architecture, LLC, listed as the architect; Farrar & Associates of Newport, listed as the contractor; and the city of Newport.
This is a project that not only relies upon public funds for support, but also the goodwill of individuals who are financially supportive. According to one report that is clearly incomplete, The Arts Center has received 93 grants from 37 funders, totaling $2.1 million. That’s aside from the state grant. That state grant required matching funds, which would have been about $4.2 million. Trebour said the Performing Arts Center met the grant requirements.
Nothing that we have found suggests any nefarious activity, but certainly a project that has had considerable difficulty reaching its financial goals to open the Performing Arts Center as a 700-seat theater.
- While Newport Performing Arts Center officials have said in the past that $5 million had been pledged for the capital campaign, and Quinn said there are active discussions with possible donors, the actual funds raised over the last several years have not included any large donations. According to Quinn, $104,000 was raised in 2025. The Performing Center’s 990 reports listed as contributions and grants, $134,869 in 2024; $393,926 in 2023; $333,057 in 2022; $298,508 in 2021; $152,967 in 2020; and $390,772.
- The Arts Center applied for an additional RISCA grant in 2021, and “$50,000 was awarded,” said RISCA Executive Director Trebour, but “they were unable to move the project forward and declined the grant.”
- The last entry on the Newport Performing Arts Center Facebook page was in February 2025, urging people to contribute to its annual campaign.
- The Arts Center’s Website features a letter in early 2025, encouraging contributions to the annual campaign, saying how the center hoped to raise the $10 million needed to resume construction by early 2025.
At various times, Arts Center officials and others have suggested that the project would be completed by 2023 and earlier, or needed funds would be raised by the end of 2024 (a letter to WhatsUpNewp from the Arts Center Board). And even earlier, officials were saying construction would begin in the spring of 2016, “with a planned opening in December 2017 – the 150th anniversary of the original opening of the Opera House Theater in 1867.”