ChangeSomething: Community Arts Space
About six months ago I started having regular meetings with local community organizer Andrea Curtis (Public Dreams, Car Free Commercial Drive, VeloFusion, etc.) about creating an affordable shared space for artists in our immediate community to meet, rehearse and develop new work. The impetus came from having one too many conversations about the lack of affordable spaces in town--it's all but impossible for performing artists to find rehearsal and development space for less than $20/hr. And lord help you if you're the noisy, music-making kinds of artists. Aside from some helpful community centres, which are of course closed at the moment, there aren't many options. There are some great affordable visual artist shared studio spaces and coops, but nothing of the sort for performing artists.
For the first couple of months we operated on a "build it and they will come" basis. We got a hot lead on a physician at VGH who was buying a building in the DTES and wanted an arts tenant so that he could be part of the community. We took a huge risk, signed a lease for the top two floors, got really excited, moved ahead... and then his offer on the building fell through and nothing happened.
Then Round 2. We found a vacant building on the corner of 15th and Commercial, an old boxing club. We had to go to the land registry office in New Westminster to find the identity of the owner, a private school nearby that plans to knock down the building to make room for new facilities. We pitched them the idea of an inexpensive short term lease as a community project, and they were receptive. We discussed terms, drafted a lease, went back and forth by email, stalled over various insurance and liability issues that took several months to take care of, got a business license from the City, purchased a year's insurance... and then the private school decided that even $2M liability insurance didn't cover them enough to make them feel comfortable. The building is still vacant.
So Round 3. In the next month, Andrea and I are going to incorporate as a non-profit cooperative, then put the invitation out within our local community to be part of a shared performing arts rehearsal and jam space. As an incorporated entity, we'll be eligible for municipal and provincial arts grants, and we'll also have much easier access to ironclad insurance policies that will make landlords feel more comfortable. We'll sign up members and then go looking for a space together, and grow into more ambitious space only when the demand from our members is too high. The plan is to have at least one large multipurpose space of 1000 sq.ft. with wood floors suitable for theatre/dance/etc, one small soundproofed "jam room" where musicians can practice any time day or night, and a small office space. Obviously this early plan will change depending on how many members the Coop attracts initially.
I'm posting here b/c the $1000 ChangeSomething grant would be a huge boost to us. We're both tired from putting 6mos of energy into this project with lilttle physical result (but lots of good learning) and we could use the grant to incorporate ($500) and as seed money for the cooperative. Vancouver really needs a space where low income performing artists can do their thing, and this would help us make that possible.
