Cinema Center at Indiana Tech, the offshoot of the downtown arthouse theater that opened in the fall 2004 as part of the Andorfer Commons project, will close after the 2011-12 academic year.

Cinema Center executive director Catherine Lee said last week that the school has indicated it would not be renewing its contract with the theater into the 2012-13 academic year.

University spokeswoman Janet Schutte confirmed this by email.

“We have had tremendous enrollment growth since our Cinema Center partnership began with the opening of Andorfer Commons in 2004,” she wrote. “That enrollment growth has brought increased demand for use of various spaces on campus, particularly the Magee-O’Connor Theater and other spaces within Andorfer Commons.

“Unfortunately,” Schutte wrote, “this means that as of July 1, 2012, the theater will no longer be available as a second venue for Cinema Center. We hope to still be able to work with Cinema Center on special events, especially those that can incorporate educational aspects for our students … ”

Schutte said the theater will only occasionally be open to the public after July 2012.

Lee said she is “very happy” overall with the years that Cinema Center has been part of Andorfer Commons.

“It’s a beautiful place,” she said. “We have done tons of amazing things there. It’s always been a shared space, so it has always been a matter of who wants what, when.”

Personally, I always thought Cinema Center and Indiana Tech were an odd fit.

How many true cineastes attend the school, as opposed to kids who would prefer to see robots punching each other, aka more commercial fare?

At any rate, Cinema Center’s main screen at 437 E. Berry St. is still going strong.

Cinema Center hosted a party Saturday called Braineaters’ Ball in the space recently vacated by Artlink.

Lee hopes it is a preview of things to come.

She says Cinema Center wants to take over the Artlink space and is just waiting for approval from Arts United, owner of the Hall Community Arts Center building.

“It is our hope to turn that into sort of an experimental space,” she said, “where we do a mix of events that include live music, readings and film and video presentations. If we can raise sufficient funds, we’ll get a digital feed so we can show opera concerts and live events.

“It’ll be very casual,” Lee said. “We’ll try to do better than folding chairs. It is not going to be the theater.”

Lee says it will be a space where conversations, camaraderie and community are as important as anything showing on a screen.

Arts United executive director Jim Sparrow said the arts funding organization is still evaluating options on what to do with the space, which was vacated when Artlink recently moved to the Auer Center for Arts and Culture at 300 E. Main St.

“We’re taking a look at it,” Sparrow said of the Cinema Center proposal.

Sparrow said the organization’s concerns are these: Is the additional space “something they could afford and would the additional programming help them or potentially be an extra burden?”

Other possible occupants for the space could be another gallery or an existing Arts United-affiliated organization that wants to make a move downtown, Sparrow said.

Sparrow said the process hasn’t “actively gone too far beyond looking at the existing tenants.”

Holiday display shifts to Glenbrook

Holiday Houses for Habitat, the enormous display of miniature villages that has been part of downtown HolidayFest activities since 2008, will be moving to Glenbrook Square from Grand Wayne Center this year, according to Kim Kelso, event manager at Grand Wayne.

Kelso says Habitat for Humanity, the owner of the villages, wanted more foot traffic and visibility to aid its fundraising efforts.

Tena Woenker, marketing director for the Downtown Improvement District, said the move allows Habitat for Humanity to centralize its holiday activities.

Dan O’Connell, executive director of Visit Fort Wayne, says there just wasn’t time this year to come up with an event to take Holiday Houses for Habitat’s place in HolidayFest.

HolidayFest kicks off this year with the Night of Lights on Nov. 23.