Our staff will tell you that the 3S Artspace renovation gives new meaning to the phrase “labor of love.” With more than four years invested in this project: a concept long in the works, with at least one change of venue and more major design iterations than our entire team has fingers on which to count, 3S recently crossed a major milestone. As of this morning, the hard hats and heavy machinery arrived on site for ground breaking.
3S Artspace has been a particularly unique and challenging project in almost every way — the start-up nonprofit organization is establishing New Hampshire’s first multidisciplinary contemporary arts space, featuring a performance space, art gallery, restaurant, and artists’ studios. The design accommodates these diverse programs for an organization with a shoestring budget and a vision of establishing as much flexibility within the venue as possible so they can grow into their needs as operations dictate. What you’ll see at 3S is an adapted reuse of a 60 year-old warehouse on the waterfront in Portsmouth’s Historic District in an up-and-coming downtown neighborhood with little visual context from which to work.