By Emilie Fleuette
For The Diamondback
The city of College Park’s future arts venue, restaurant and bar — MilkBoy ArtHouse — is making progress on Route 1 and should open before students leave for spring break in March.
The ArtHouse is the result of a partnership between the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and MilkBoy, a music and entertainment company based out of Philadelphia. It replaces The Barking Dog, a former bar that closed in 2013.
MilkBoy owners Tommy Joyner and Jamie Lokoff on Wednesday confirmed the opening and said construction is progressing. ArtHouse will boast two floors with separate venues: The downstairs will house two bars and a restaurant with seating, while the top floor will hold the performance space, one long bar and a rotating art gallery that will likely serve as a lounge area when not housing an exhibit, said Erica Bondarev Rapach, the Clarice’s associate executive director.
“When we’re up and running at full force,” Rapach said during Wednesday’s tour of the renovation progress. “The idea is that you could walk into this space at anytime, day or evening, and there might be some kind of event going on.”
The hope is to host performances or events three to five times a week, The Diamondback reported in early October. Rapach said the space will cater to all types of performing arts, such as spoken word, dance, theater, film and comedy.
MilkBoy ArtHouse will be something special, Lokoff said.
“We’re really in the music scene in Philadelphia and we had the opportunity to come here to the University of Maryland, to College Park, and bring some of that energy to an area that needed a jolt of energy,” he said.
