Bellforge Arts Center has started construction on a $30 million preservation and renovation initiative at the former Medfield State Hospital campus, advancing plans to convert part of the historic property into a new arts and education destination for the MetroWest region. The project focuses on transforming the Lee Chapel and the adjacent Infirmary buildings into a year-round cultural campus, with an opening targeted for the fall of 2027.
The organization describes its effort as centered on broadening access to the arts for the surrounding community. Leadership at Bellforge emphasizes that the emerging campus is intended to serve residents across the region, reflecting a belief that high-quality arts programming should not be limited to major urban centers and that the former hospital campus can be repositioned as a welcoming cultural setting within the Commonwealth.
The construction budget for the initiative totals $30 million and is being capitalized through a combination of philanthropic and public support. Bellforge is backing the majority of the cost with a $25 million capital campaign, supplemented by historic tax credits awarded through the Massachusetts Historic Commission. This blend of private fundraising and incentive-based funding is helping to underwrite the extensive preservation and rehabilitation work required at the historic Lee Chapel and Infirmary structures.
The arts center project is proceeding alongside a broader redevelopment strategy for the overall Medfield State Hospital campus. That larger repositioning effort is benefitting from state and local infrastructure investment, with support channeled through MassDevelopment and administered by the Town of Medfield. The Bellforge initiative represents one of the cultural anchors within this wider plan to bring new uses and public activity to the former institutional site.
Once complete, the Bellforge Arts Center is expected to provide a dedicated venue for arts and educational programming that operates throughout the year. By reusing existing historic buildings rather than constructing new facilities on greenfield land, the project pairs cultural investment with adaptive reuse of legacy institutional assets on the campus.
A rendering of the redeveloped arts center, prepared by DBVW Architects, illustrates the planned transformation of the chapel and infirmary buildings as they are preserved and updated to support their new role within the Medfield State Hospital redevelopment.
