Longtime local culture watchers know that wherever Jim de Priest goes, interesting things happen.

So you might want to keep an eye on Cloverdale.

“Cloverdale is becoming a real center for the arts,” de Priest said. “The arts are thriving here.”

At 73, the actor, teacher and theater director is as restless and ambitious as ever, settling into his current role as artistic director of the Cloverdale Performing Arts Center.

The performing arts center has been operating for a year and a half in the town’s historic Grange Hall, and de Priest expects a new center to open early next year in a remodeled former spa building nearby, at 201 Cloverdale Blvd.

The new center will have a 99-seat theater designed by Paul Gilger, the architect responsible for the popular G.K. Hardt main auditorium in Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, de Priest said.

To support his view of Cloverdale’s emergence as a cultural boomtown, de Priest points to drastic improvements at the Cloverdale Museum, and the energetic programs of the Cloverdale Arts’ Alliance, which operates its own art gallery.

All of that got underway without de Priest, so with him in town, the pace could quicken.

“The arts can change a community’s image, just like that,” de Priest said.

While awaiting the opening of the new performing arts center, de Priest keeps busy at the Grange Hall at 201 Commercial St., with a fall production of “Winnie the Pooh” in the works. The venue also serves as a site for parties, wedding receptions and other events.  (894-2214, cloverdaleperformingarts.org.)

For the future, de Priest dreams of a professional theater company with a full season.

For those who haven’t encountered de Priest before, a few highlights:

In 1993, de Priest — with actors Shad Willingham and Eric Cook — started Sebastopol’s Main Street Theater, later renamed the Sonoma County Repertory Theater, in an old corner drugstore building. At Ives Park nearby, they also started the Sebastopol Shakespeare Festival, now nearing the end of its 16th season.

In 1995, Main Street Theater became the Sonoma County Repertory Theater, when it opened a second location in downtown Santa Rosa, which it maintained until 2000. (de Priest left the Rep in 2003.)

Four summers ago, de Priest co-founded the Windsor Shakespeare on the Green series, which continues to draw crowds to free outdoor performances.