Lack of a system breeds more of the same: Source Theater, Washington DC, up for sale 2006, 2024
A lot of my thinking about arts revitalization and more generally as an element of a community's culture was influenced by the failure of a bunch of DC arts organizations around 2003-2006.
The Source Theater was one of the failures ("Debt-Ridden Source Theatre Closes, Plans to Sell Building," "Source Theatre's Last Act: Building To Be Arts Center," Washington Post, 2006).
The actual Source Theater group disbanded, and with the purchase by Cultural Development Corporation later in 2006, the building was retained for use by cultural groups, more as a rental facility.
Ironically, the building has been put up for sale again, 18 years later ("Small D.C. theater companies have a challenge: Finding theaters The stalwart Source Theater is up for sale, shining a spotlight on the issues many under-the-radar companies face in post-lockdown Washington," Washington Post). From the Post:
... the Source Theatre, an intimate 120-seat stage at 14th and T streets NW that has served audiences for nearly 50 years, is up for sale — a turn of events that has arts leaders pointing the finger at both city leaders and one another.
“Since the pandemic, the arts community, specifically the theater community, has not bounced back,” says Kristi Maiselman, executive director and curator for the arts nonprofit CulturalDC, which owns the Source. “If the city wants arts spaces, they have to find a way to support them in this landscape.”
With audiences not yet returning at pre-pandemic levels, many small theaters are turning to the city government for support. And the D.C. government spends more on the arts per capita than any state. But it isn’t just small companies asking for help, which makes a race for resources that much tighter.
.webp)
The failure to think about those failures in terms of rethinking the local arts ecosystem as a network led to pieces such as:
-- "More on (DC's) Cultural Infrastructure," 2009
-- "Building the arts and culture ecosystem in DC: Part One, sustained efforts vs. one-off or short term initiatives," 2015
-- "The song remains the same: DC's continued failures in cultural planning as evidenced by failures with Bohemian Caverns, Howard Theatre, Union Arts, Takoma Theatre...," 2016
-- about discipline-focused approaches to the creation of arts districts and arts presentation:
-- "Reprinting with a slight update, 'Arts, culture districts and revitalization'," 2009/2019
and what I would do were I given the task of creating in DC a robust local arts ecosystem--as opposed to the federal arts institutions "given to" and within DC such as the Smithsonian Museums, National Gallery of Art, Kennedy Center, US Botanic Garden, etc.
-- "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem," 2019
DC spends a lot of money on the arts, but it doesn't protect its interests very well, especially because it's not interested in managing and owning property. Ultimately owning facilities is key to protect the city's interest.
This piece, "Cultural resources planning in DC: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" (2007) on the failures of organizations back in 2003-2006, includes an extract from a memo from 2006 on how DC should organize cultural planning and presentation that I wrote for use in a board planning exercise by the then reorganizing Historical Society. From that memo:
Proposals/Recommendations
1. That DC develop a comprehensive cultural development, management, and funding plan, setting priorities for the development, harvesting, and funding of cultural resources assets;
2. And consider the development of an allied tourism management and development plan, either separately or within the same framework;
3. create a comprehensive Cultural Resources Management office, likely merging a variety of programs and assets currently spread around various agencies
4. Provide funding, both for capital improvements and operations, that that also considers providing significant ongoing funding to cultural resources deemed important.
5. Develop an open and transparent grant process.
I guess I should have added to the list, the thread about arts facilities being owned by a city, county, or community development corporation as a portfolio, the series Buy the Mother Fucking Buildings Already:
-- "BTMFBA: the best way to ward off artist or retail displacement is to buy the building," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: maintaining arts spaces in the face of rising real estate values | Seattle, New York City," 2024
-- "New form of BTMFBA in San Francisco," 2023
-- "A wrinkle on BTMFBA: let the city/county own the cultural facility, while you operate it (San Francisco and the Fillmore Heritage Center)," 2021
-- "BTMFBA: Baltimore and the Area 405 Studio," 2021
-- "Revisiting stories: cultural planning and the need for arts-based community development corporations as real estate operators," 2018
-- "When BTMFBA isn't enough: keeping civic assets public through cy pres review," 2016
-- "BMFBTA revisited: nonprofits and facilities planning and acquisition," 2016
-- "BTMFBA: artists and Los Angeles," 2017
-- "BTMFBA Chronicles: Seattle coffee shop raises money to buy its building," 2018
-- "Dateline Los Angeles: BTMFBA & Transformational Projects Action Planning & arts-related community development corporation as an implementation mechanism to own property," 2018
Labels: capital improvements planning, civic assets, facilities management, government oversight, public finance and spending, public realm framework, urban design/placemaking
posted by Richard Layman @ 1:13 PM&Permanent Link
15 Comments:
isn't cultural DC a semi-agency of the city?
No. But they work closely with it, get a lot of funding from it. But what was Cultural Development Corp., I just don't remember if they merged with Cultural Tourism, or just changed their name.
BOPA in Baltimore is a quasi-city agency.
Right. Don't know any of the history here.
I'm guessing your suggestion is the city should buy it?
Yep. They should own the buildings, with management agreements.
may need to talk with you offline about this.
rlaymandc@gmail.com to start...
For Synetic Theater, Movement is the Norm
The renowned physical theater company is reacquainting itself with the nomadic life after leaving its longtime home in Crystal City.
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/755039/for-synetic-theater-movement-is-the-norm
12/13/24
Synetic is banking on more of these memories as it navigates a new chapter. This summer, the company departed its home base in Crystal City after landowners JBG Smith declined to renew the lease. Although not a surprise to the theater company (which nearly lost its lease back in 2019), it was a significant upheaval for a small organization that put down roots back in 2009 when it took over the underground venue near Crystal City Metro. It certainly didn’t help that they learned of their ouster in April 2023, just months after co-cofounder Paata Tsikurishvili survived a horrendous car accident.
While being uprooted is an existential threat to most companies, nomadic life is nothing new to Synetic—some say it’s what they do best. “We can and should be performing in a variety of spaces,” says Cunis, who had been doing the job as managing director for less than a year when JBG Smith broke the news. (He has performed, choreographed, and directed for Synetic since well before landing in Crystal City.) Prior to settling in Arlington, the company performed in venues across the region, including the Kennedy Center, Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh (now Klein) Theatre, the Rosslyn Spectrum, and Shirlington Village.
This season, the company is drawing on all its experience while presenting main-stage works in no fewer than four venues. ...
Crucially, Crystal City also had rehearsal space: a converted underground McDonald’s (“we took that space and it became healthier,” jokes Paata) that was affectionately known as “the Factory.” Like the stage, the Factory was retrofitted for the company’s needs, complete with ceiling-high mirrors and sprung flooring, the latter a common feature in dance studios that absorbs shock and minimizes strain on joints. It’s that kind of rehearsal and laboratory space, more so than a stage, that is essential for the company’s success. “What really matters is to make sure you have a base,” Paata says. “That way you can train and also experiment and do rehearsals. Like Cirque du Soleil: They don’t have their own facilities to perform in, but they have a base.”
... All that training requires time, which means extended access to adequate facilities. For now, the company has a temporary base in the municipal spaces at the Arlington Cultural Affairs building, which houses Theatre on the Run and which it pays for through a portion of ticket sales and tuition revenue from classes. Though not all rooms have sprung floors and ceiling-high mirrors they prefer, it’s enough for them to rehearse and maintain their classes and teen ensembles, which have proven a reliable source of new talent.
... “If I’ve learned anything about the creation of performing arts spaces, it’s that it takes the concerted vision of the arts group, the community, the municipality, and the developers,” he says. Evidently, that concerted vision never took hold in Crystal City. Neither Cunis nor Paata could determine precisely why JBG Smith declined to renew their lease, nor would they speculate on the developer’s plans for the space or rumors that JBG Smith’s lucrative partnership with tech giants Amazon contributed to their decision to end the lease in the first place. (Amazon has funded some of Synetic’s main-stage and educational programming through grants and sponsorships.) JBG Smith declined to comment for this article.
Similar problems in Toronto, even the failure of events and festivals.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/revue-cinemas-reprieve-a-rare-bit-of-welcome-news-for-torontos-hard-hit-arts-scene/article_cd0311e2-705c-11ef-b1cc-03be759b55a8.html
And in Toronto’s culture scene, a rare bit of good news in a year of farewells and cutbacks.
After tense landlord standoff, Revue Cinema announces it’s staying put for five years with new lease: ‘A rare case of the good guys winning’
The non-profit organization that runs the beloved Revue Cinema released a joint press release
Artscape went suddenly bankrupt, most of its organizations dismantled. The Just for Laughs comedy festival was cancelled for the year due to financial restructuring. The Hot Docs film festival was cancelled, its Bloor West cinema closed and staff laid off, at least temporarily, amid apparent organizational chaos. The Toronto Fringe Festival this year was scaled down due to recent low attendance and financial constraints. The Phoenix Concert Theatre shut down pending some possible eventual reopening somewhere else. And on and on — title sponsors abandoning organizations, treasured institutions pleading for lifelines, long-standing traditions ending. Right through — stretching the definition of cultural life — to the cancellation of the Taste of the Danforth.
Artscape goes bankrupt. Organization owned property, was a developer, often in the US. I was critical because I said that the expertise in developing projects didn't stay local.
https://archive.ph/xahMJ
Artscape played a vital role in Toronto’s arts and culture communities. What happens now?
Richard Marsella is proud of the stars who got their start at the Regent Park School of Music — the opera singer, the poet, the jazz musician.
As executive director of the music school, housed in the Daniels Spectrum building in Regent Park, he has also seen how studying the arts benefits those who choose other professions, and how a group of arts organizations, brought together, can become something more than the sum of their parts.
“It’s like the connective tissue in a community,” says Marsella, of the building, which is home to arts and community organizations, art galleries and event spaces, and has become a neighbourhood hub.
I'm wrong, Artspace in the US is different from the Canadian group.
What a joke...
https://thewash.org/2024/12/14/d-c-artists-demand-action-to-protect-creative-spaces-amid-rising-costs/
https://www.academia.edu/89101433/Ephemeral_Geographies_Of_DIY_Making_Space_In_Toronto_s_Creative_City
masters thesis
This paper discusses practices of “creative placemaking” in Toronto, the complex relationships that
are formed between creative practitioners and the places they create, and the crucial role of more
informal and do-it-yourself (DIY) workspaces in the broader creative community. As geographies and
conditions of work have shifted, and affordable, accessible and appropriate creative workspace in
the city has become increasingly rare, creative practitioners from across various felds are forced to
fnd alternative ways to continue their practices. I examine the role of the DIY workspace as a crucial
form of creative space in the city that offers the creative practitioner a level of spatial stability in the
face of rapid and often arts-led gentrifcation, development and upscaling across the downtown.
Using a mixed-methods approach that includes participant photography, I explore the imagery, pro-
duction, materiality, and functions of these spaces; the ways in which they blur and require complex
negotiations of boundaries; the ways in which they beneft, challenge and impact their makers and
users; and their relationships with top-down Creative City policy frameworks and institutions. I argue
that these kinds of spaces are often very different from dominant ideals of what an art space should
be, are different from the at-home art spaces of the past, and are increasingly necessary for creative
practitioners to continue their work in a changing city where they have fewer and fewer options, in
spite of the deployment of Creative City discourse that might suggest otherwise. I also argue that
dominant imagery and narratives distort our understandings of creativity and space in the city, but
that real and imagined are mutually embedded, and that examinations of workspaces as perceived lived and conceived can allow us to better understand them as places.
https://dctheaterarts.org/2024/10/02/theater-alliance-announces-the-westerly-as-temporary-venue-for-2024-25-season/
Theater Alliance announces The Westerly as temporary venue for 2024/25 season
In the Westerly apartments.
Arlington has some of these spaces for the arts in such buildings, as community benefits.
https://www.clarkconstruction.com/our-work/projects/westerly
The Westerly is a 420,000-square-foot mixed-use, mixed-market residential building featuring 449 apartment units. The property features ground-floor retail space, second-floor and penthouse amenity spaces, two levels of below-grade parking, and 136 affordable housing units.
==========
The move to The Westerly is made possible thanks to the support of Hoffman & Associates, whose mission of community-led design mirrors Theater Alliance’s commitment to fostering connection through the arts. “Hoffman & Associates’ dedication to empowering communities ensures Theater Alliance’s continued growth and innovation. This initiative is part of a pilot, year-long, innovative model for arts engagement, thanks to Mayor Bowser’s new pop-up permitting program which has allowed us to activate vacant retail space and continue to serve our community,” said Producing Artistic Director, Shanara Gabrielle.
The Westerly is designed to be a striking, modern residential offering with amenity spaces that are uniquely designed to foster community and inspire engagement. In fact, The Westerly reserved over 9,000 square feet for a theater or performing arts venue. Our efforts to lease the space have not been successful to date for some of the challenges that Theater Alliance references. The Mayor’s Pop-Up Program has provided an opportunity to use the space for its intended purpose while also providing a temporary home for Theater Alliance. Together, we are proud to contribute to the continued growth and vibrancy of this neighborhood we serve.”
In March 2024, when Theater Alliance lost its home in Anacostia, the Board of Directors immediately launched a Relocation Committee, chaired by Board Secretary Liz Ho, to begin scouting for the company’s new artistic home. Working alongside Producing Artistic Director, Shanara Gabrielle, the Committee realized that ongoing development and rising costs in the area made finding a suitable performance venue in Anacostia unachievable.
Theater Alliance’s journey is one of resilience, growth, and a steadfast commitment to its core values of justice, artistic excellence, and community connection. Invested in maintaining the relationships and partnerships from its time in Anacostia, while capitalizing on this exciting new opportunity of presenting at The Westerly. Theater Alliance is confident the community will join it in this new era of growth.
This 24/7 rehearsal space provides a home for D.C.’s actors
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/17/studio-acting-conservatory-rehearsal-space/
The Studio Acting Conservatory has four rooms, modeled after stages, that students can use as their dramatic playground. But it’s not uncommon for students to fill up the kitchen hallways and outdoor areas with rehearsals during busier times.
Khalid Abayomi knows what it’s like to spend hours upon hours at this converted church with a bloodred entrance. Abayomi, 24, says he often heads straight there from his substitute teaching job in Prince George’s County Public Schools. He spends at least five days a week rehearsing, observing and absorbing the feel of working with other creative types — with some nights stretching until 2 or 3 a.m.
“There are nights I’ve come by just to be by myself,” Abayomi says. “Ever since my first class, it’s had the feel of a community and a home. So, it’s always felt like a place I can come to whenever I need to do anything.”
The theatrical school opened at this location in August 2021. It used to be nestled within Studio Theatre, the performance space farther down 14th Street NW. Throughout its lifespan, founder Joy Zinoman has offered students the promise of rehearsal space with 24-hour, seven-days-a-week access.
“I want people to rehearse,” Zinoman, 81, says of the come-as-you-please mind set. “You have to do the work, and unfortunately doing the work means rehearsing.
“To get to the quality that I want, then you’ve got to provide the resources to do that.”
I live for music, but San Francisco should stop funding free concerts
https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/san-francisco-free-concerts-misguided-20036263.php
In 2024, Breed’s office funneled $2.5 million in state funds into SF Live, a monthslong series of free outdoor concerts. From April to November, San Francisco sponsored 24 free events across the city. Eagles of Death Metal played at Potrero Del Sol; Sudan Archives played Crane Cove Park.
By all accounts, SF Live was a victory — spiritually and economically. The mayor’s office enlisted the help of local venues like Bottom of the Hill and El Rio to book shows, and it paid each a stipend for its work. By SF Live’s conclusion, the city had dropped wads of money into the pockets of local bands and independent clubs. And, perhaps most importantly of all, it made people happy to live in San Francisco.
Focusing on music right now might seem like a distraction. But backers of San Francisco’s free shows rightly argue that they have tangible economic benefits. They bring foot traffic to San Francisco’s downtown — half of the SF Live events took place at either Union Square or Fulton Plaza, “activating” neglected plazas and funneling fans into nearby bars and restaurants. They do public relations work for the city, signaling to tourists that San Francisco is fun, safe and open for business. And they provide much-appreciated financial support to independent venues and bands.
Still, free concerts won’t bring a lasting change to San Francisco. At best, these events are expensive stopgap measures. If the city wants to reassert its claim as a music capital, it needs to tend to the infrastructure that sustains its music scene: clubs, rehearsal spaces, housing, young people. Free concerts cannot transform San Francisco’s music scene on their own.
Even without the city’s support, San Francisco is up to its ears in free live music. Last summer, you could hardly walk a block without tripping over a free concert, thanks to the efforts of local promoters and well-heeled nonprofits. Noise Pop and Civic Joy Fund partnered for the second year of their Summer of Music initiative, which orchestrated around 1,000 free concerts on street corners and outside coffee shops. (Lurie co-founded Civic Joy Fund in 2023.) Downtown First Thursdays, from Into The Streets and Civic Joy Fund, brought free DJ sets and drag shows to the Financial District. And, as always, there was the Stern Grove Festival, whose 2024 lineup included Chicano Batman, Masego and Alex G. That’s not to mention Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Haight Ashbury Street Fair, KQED’s block party and SF Porchfest. All wonderful events. The mayor’s office doesn’t need to get in on the action.
A city’s music scene is only as successful as the infrastructure that supports it. With $2.5 million, the city could beef up the SF New Deal’s Downtown Entertainment & Nightlife Revitalization Grants, earmark more Grants for the Arts for musical groups and go even further. Other artistic hubs understand this. London has a city-sponsored land trust that purchases buildings for use as cheap artist studios. San Francisco could follow its lead for rehearsal spaces. Last year, Tennessee’s legislature approved a bill establishing a fund to support its independent venues. (No money has been dedicated yet, but advocates hope that it could eventually distribute millions of dollars per year. SF New Deal gives a similar boost but only to a handful of local venues and promoters.)
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SF New Deal’s Downtown Entertainment & Nightlife Revitalization Grants
https://sfnewdeal.org/enrg
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