The Newton Arts and Culture Department, headed up by Meryl Kessler, finally has a brick-and-mortar home: The Linda Plaut Arts and Culture Center in Newton Highlands.

The department had been operating at City Hall for months while the city readied its new home, the former Brigham House building in Newton Highlands. The center is named after Linda Plaut, who lead the city’s arts and cultural efforts before such a department existed. Plaut died in 2019, and there is now a summer-long festival named in her honor.

The Brigham family, which founded Brigham’s Ice Cream, built the house in 1896, and it was later acquired by the city, used as a branch library, then a teen center and, more recently, a temporary senior center.

With money from the Community Preservation Act and fundraising efforts, the house has been renovated and will continue to serve the community as an arts and culture hub.

On Sunday, Kessler and Mayor Marc Laredo hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Plaut’s family to welcome the new era in Newton arts and culture.

“Linda Plaut was a role model for me and for many others, and I know, for many people gathered here today,” Kessler said. “Her deep commitment to building community inspired both my professional and my personal life. It is an honor and a privilege to lead Newton’s new Arts and Culture Department and to continue the work Linda started, cultivated and grew.”