The latest addition to Jeffersonville’s arts district is hosting its first event this weekend, more than two years after the city revealed plans for the project.
The Depot is a new entertainment venue in the NoCo Arts & Cultural District, just off Spring Street. Its name refers to the repurposed train cars where artists and other vendors will sell their products.
Jeffersonville officials cut the ribbon on the event space on Tuesday. Mayor Mike Moore said his administration has focused on attracting new businesses and restaurants to revitalize downtown, but the Depot was an opportunity to try something different.
“Jeffersonville is a special place, and it's got something for everybody,” he said. “And the Depot is just one more way for us to be unique. We've always wanted to become a destination place. I believe Jeffersonville is now that destination place.”
In addition to the vibrantly-colored train cars, the Depot has a stage, a bar and spaces for food trucks.
Depot Days, the venue’s first event series, will take place every Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for the next four weeks. There’ll be live music, an art market and food vendors.
Public Art Administrator Emily Dippie said she hopes the Depot can help inspire artists by giving them a new platform.
“I think that's what we were hoping for it to be on a regular basis — to be a space where art forms of various kinds can be shown off to our community and connect in a really special space that's designed to do that,” she said.
Work on the Depot began in 2019. It cost the city about $2.5 million.
Moore said the NoCo Arts & Cultural District will continue to grow soon with a new occupant in the former Vintage Fire Museum.