About Artspace
The Artspace Mission
The mission of Artspace Projects is to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations. We pursue this mission through development projects, asset management activities, consulting services, and community-building activities that serve artists and arts organizations of all disciplines, cultures, and economic circumstances. By creating this space, Artspace supports the continued professional growth of artists and enhances the cultural and economic vitality of the surrounding community.The Artspace Story
Finding and retaining affordable live/work space is an age-old problem for artists, painters, sculptors, dancers, and others who require an abundance of well-lit space in which to work. Many artists gravitate to old warehouses and other industrial buildings, but their very presence in an industrial neighborhood often acts as a catalyst, setting in motion a process of gentrification that drives rents up and forces the artists out.
This is precisely what happened in Minneapolis' historic Warehouse District in the 1970s and led to the creation of Artspace in 1979. Established to serve as an advocate for artists' space needs, Artspace effectively fulfilled that mission for nearly a decade. By the mid-1980s, however, it was clear that the problem required a more proactive approach, and Artspace made the leap from advocate to developer. Since then, the scope of Artspace's activities has grown dramatically. Artspace is now America's leading nonprofit real estate developer for the arts.
In the last few years, Artspace has further expanded its mission to incorporate the planning and development of performing arts centers, museums, other arts facilities, and entire arts districts throughout the country.
Why We Do What We Do
Artspace's experience in facilitating space development for artists has led us to the following conclusions:
- Aesthetically pleasing spaces create a safe working environment that helps artists grow professionally and achieve financial stability.
- Live/work projects help increase pedestrian traffic in urban areas, while streetscapes take on a new, lively character.
- Other neighborhood development typically follows within three years of the completion of a live/work project. This development in turn helps generate other cultural activity and creates a general increase in visitors to the area.
Artspace developments benefit their communities in several significant ways. They create affordable spaces for artists to live, work, exhibit, perform, and conduct business. A lively arts community is one hallmark of a
healthy city, and it is clear from the volume of inquiries Artspace receives - about 30 calls a week, on average - that cities all around the country are awakening to this fact.
Artspace projects serve as catalysts for neighborhood revitalization. Invariably, the community that evolves within an artist live/work project soon spreads into the surrounding area, breathing new life, energy, and stability into the entire community. Moreover, every Artspace project to date has transformed an unused or underutilized historic building into a fully functioning facility. While historic preservation is not our primary mission, we regard it as a highly beneficial byproduct of what we do - one that allows communities to preserve their architectural heritage rather than to bulldoze it in the name of progress.
Sustainability in Practice at Artspace
At Artspace, we have come to realize that green building and sustainable development are at the very core of our mission to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organization. Green building is a whole-building and systems approach to design and construction. It employs building techniques that minimize environmental impacts and reduce the energy consumption of buildings while contributing to the health and productivity of its occupants. A copy of our sustainable protocol can be downloaded here.
