RIT City Art Space is the Rochester Institute of Technology College of Art and Design’s premiere exhibition and event venue downtown.

City Art Space is free and open to the public. It features art and design exhibitions by RIT students, faculty, alumni, and more, and serves as a site for experiential learning for students in the College of Art and Design and beyond.

In 1968, RIT began relocating its campus from downtown Rochester to Henrietta, but the art department remained downtown until the 1990s. Located at 50 W. Main St., the site included painting studios and a gallery that was open to the public.

Eventually, the art department moved to the Henrietta campus, but a group of art faculty was determined to keep a gallery space in the city, maintaining a connection to downtown Rochester.

After several moves, in December 2018 RIT City Art Space made its debut at 280 E. Main St., in the Sibley Building on Liberty Pole Plaza.

Part of the site’s transformation was envisioned by students in RIT’s interior design program, who were challenged with conceptualizing plans for a flexible exhibition space.