Stonington — A Putnam performing and creative arts school has announced it will expand into the Connecticut Velvet Mill this summer.

Nichola Johnson, co-director of the The Complex Performing and Creative Arts Centre, said Wednesday she has signed a lease for a 1,000-square-foot space in the mill that is home to a mix of artists, food makers, a brewery and many other small businesses, as well as a popular winter farmer’s market.

Jones, who is an adjunct professor of performing arts at Eastern Connecticut State University, said the center, which opened 13 years ago, operates as an arts conservatory for children, teens and adults.

She said she had been looking for a second location for the past three years and was familiar with the area, having spent summers in Mystic as a child. But she said that she was not familiar with the velvet mill and its successful reuse after the company moved to Virginia more than 20 years ago.

“We’re located on Main Street in Putnam in a thriving arts community so we wanted to be part of that somewhere else,” she said. “We kind of stumbled upon (the velvet mill). The place is so cool. We visited to check it out and decided it would be a good fit.”

Johnson said the 1,000-square foot space will allow the center to start small and move slowly with the option of moving into a larger section of the mill in the future.

She said a sampling of classes, most for children and teens, will be offered this summer, with a full slate of classes slated to begin in September. It will offer classes in dance/movement, theatre and creative arts.

Johnson said the arts center originally opened in an old mill in Putnam and now is located in a historic former bank building in the northeastern Connecticut community.

“We enjoy being part of a resurgence of old buildings,” she said.

Johnson said the center also will bring performers to the mill, as well as perform out in the community. She said about five to six of the center’s faculty member will work at the mill in the beginning.

She said that she began dancing at age 3 in the traditional world of recitals, pageants and competitions. She said it was not until she got to college at the Hartford Conservatory and Eastern Connecticut State University that her eyes were opened and she realized dance was an art form and not a competition.

After graduating with a degree in fine arts — she also has a master’s degree in interdisciplinary art from Goddard College — she said she “felt the community needed something different than the pageantry of the dance competition world” and a chance to expose students to dance in the college and professional world.

That’s when the Killingly native opened her center in nearby Putnam.

More information about the center is available at www.thecpac.org.

j.wojtas@theday.com