Galapagos Art Space has moved to DUMBO!

 

 

In DUMBO, Galapagos Art Space has created New York City’s first LEED certified ‘green’ cultural venue. 

 

Along with our move Galapagos Art Space announces that

Karen Brooks Hopkins President, Brooklyn Academy of Music
Susan Feldman Artistic Director, St. Ann’s Warehouse
Ed Townsend Former Chairman, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts

will join our advisory board.

 

In DUMBO Galapagos Art Space will present the best of our cultural, non-profit and children’s programming, and will create New York City’s first LEED certified ‘green’ cultural venue.

 

Our new venue will be at 16 Main Street, in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

 

Galapagos Art Space will open in DUMBO in the summer of 2008.

We’ll continue our full schedule in Williamsburg through the weekend of June 17th and then operate mostly on weekends and for special events through the summer.

 

We love Williamsburg, we were born here in 1995, but we simply can’t afford to remain in Williamsburg and produce the work that we feel is our most valuable contribution to the cultural ecosystem of New York City. 

In December 2005 our rent went up by $10,000.00 a month. 

Now, in order to extend our lease past November, our landlord requires a 30%
increase in rent. 

As a venue, our core responsibility is to create audiences for the artists we present and help expand the cultural environment for the benefit of the community we live in. 

In DUMBO we’ll be able to present the theater, dance, performance art, music, cinema, lectures / literary events, and the non profit fundraising that we believe is our core mission and the most important contribution we can make to our community.

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It must be said that our landlords are lovely people who, way back in 1995, gave us an opportunity that no one else was willing to offer. The rent increases they’ve offered us are, incredibly, still below the market rate.

We’ll be working with them to make sure that 70 North 6 Street remains a venue of cultural significance and doesn’t become the North 6 Street's next American Apparel or, god forbid, a Starbucks. 

We’ll have an interesting announcement about 70 North 6 Street very soon. 

 

  
Last summer two developers walked into the North Brooklyn apartment of our friend and told him he had nothing to worry about - they weren’t going to tear down the building he was living in for at least another year. Our friend, a filmmaker, thinks he can’t possibly afford to stay in New York, and he’s not alone.

The canaries in New York City’s real estate gold mine – its emerging and mid career artists – are no longer talking about the next show they hope to land, they’re talking about an affordable city they can land in once their current lease runs out.

If artists and the best young cultural thinkers think they can’t possibly afford to live here then we’d better find ways to make them think they can’t possibly afford to live anywhere else.

The only message that can effectively cut through cost is opportunity.

New York’s development and cultural policies must become linked. Someone needs to find ways to make partners out of the people building the buildings, and the cultural uses the City needs in them. If we don’t incentivize the replacement of the emerging and mid career arts infrastructure that’s evaporating in our white-hot real estate market, or it won’t be built.  

Galapagos proposes an expansion of the 421-a tax exemption program to incentivize the creation of ground floor cultural infrastructure. 

Originally conceived to aid in the development of low-income housing, we believe that expanding the program to include ground floor cultural infrastructure creates an effective alliance between two of the most important forces that continually shape our city—the arts and real estate—and is a useful civic investment in the balanced growth of our city throughout the five boroughs. 

In the end only one thing matters: good artists and the best young thinkers follow ideas, and ideas flourish when there is opportunity to realize them.  

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Can it work? For the past decade Two Trees Management and David and Jed Walentas have worked hard to grow DUMBO into one of New York City’s most important neighborhood for art and culture. But they’ve done more than that. They’ve created the template by which the interests of real estate and cultural New York can grow together - effectively creating their own 421-a cultural program and proving that it works for all the stakeholders involved. 

Their assistance in our moving to DUMBO has been instrumental. It’s the reason we are able to move to DUMBO and why we can afford to stay in New York City.  

 

 

Contact Galapagos Art Space director Robert Elmes at:
robert@galapagosartspace.com

 

 

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The Office of the Mayor of New York City, Marty Markowitz the Borough President of Brooklyn, Councilman David Yassky, Two Trees Management Company, David and Jed Walentas, New York City Small Business Services, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Lois Ingram, Eugene Lem and Jess Walker / MA Architects.

Galapagos would like to extend a very special thank you to Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, who over the years helped Galapagos many times when it was very important for us to have his help. His leadership in North Brooklyn has been extremely important for the communities he serves so well. Thank you Joe!

http://www.galapagosartspace.com

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