As some of you know, the lovely church at 126 Norwich is on the market again. It COULD be a much-needed venue for the performing arts in this city. It can seat around 150 people; it’s a heritage building in a great location, and it’s got endless possibility! I am hearing from so many artists in this city that there is no place with reasonable rent to put on events, or to rehearse for dance, theatre and music productions. It would be a shame to let this opportunity slip by.
The realtor, has a client interested in purchasing the property. His vision is that he would live in the rear of the building and rent out the chapel, with the help of an artist’s collective that could administer the rentals for evening events and day use such as classes, rehearsals, meetings etc.
To make an offer, ( which will have to come soon)– he’d like to be sure that he’d get around 5000 dollars per month in rent from arts or community-based clients. We figure that a rental of 200 dollars per night would make it the best deal in town and still help to pay the bills. AND for rehearsals and day use: 40 dollars per hour would be fair. Bookings for 15 nights per month would generate 3000 dollars, and day use of 50 hours per month would bring it up to 5000 dollars.
In a very short time, to make this happen, the arts community needs to commit to making use of the church. The prospective buyer understands that it would take a period of time to spread the word and to reach that 5000 dollar per month goal, but he would need to feel confident that this would be attainable. I think it is. The first step is to be able to bring back an ‘arts inventory’ of potential users for dance, music, theatre, civic meetings, lessons, workshops, yoga classes, church services, etc.
Together with record store owner and concert promoter Charlie Cares, I’ve agreed to help with assembling this list, and to help develop a more official ‘performing arts co-operative’ that could help bring this and other community arts projects forward. ( I’ll tell you about those another time)
Here’s what you can do. Email back if you think you might be a potential user, with the number of uses per YEAR that you would realistically be booking. For example, I personally think I’d use it four times per year for events, and 40 hours of rehearsal time. AND, pass this note along to anyone you know who might be interested; at the same time sending those email addresses to ME so we can build a good network.
let me know if you know any other benefactors!AND, let me know if you’d like to get involved in the process. We need your help!
Thanks
James Gordon