On Wednesday, April 14, America’s leading non-profit real estate developer for affordable housing and work spaces for artists, “Artspace” is making a trip to Crookston for an afternoon, evening and morning packed full of focus group meetings, a bus tour, and evening presentation and conversation.
The public is invited to attend the April 14 presentation, which will be held at 7 p.m. at Crookston High School. Teri Deaver, a contact from Minneapolis-based Artspace, said “everything they do is a conversation, and every question is a good question.”
Development projects, which typically involve the adaptive reuse of older buildings but can also involve new construction, are the most visible of Artspace’s activities.
At Thursday’s CHEDA Board of Directors meeting, CHEDA Executive Director Dan Johanneck said some of the Artspace tour of Crookston will include actual walk-throughs of potential sites, and drive-by tours of buildings that are not able to be entered, such as the Palace/Wayne Hotel building.
Johanneck said he believes the tour will include the Professional Building, Carnegie Library, Union Building, Fournier Building, to name a few.
According to artspace.org, experienced project managers creatively finance and coordinate the construction of projects throughout the country. In communities across the nation, Artspace develops a mix of affordable live/work units, retail space, and administrative and performance space for arts organizations.
Artspace has developed buildings close to us as well as coast to coast: the Kaddatz Hotel in Detroit Lakes into affordable artist lofts, Franklin Arts Center in Brainerd, and Washington Studios in Duluth are the projects they will talk about as well as the housing and space needs of artists. This may be an opportunity to attract more artists to our area, which notably has affordable rents.
Those wanting more information can visit www.ourcrookston.blogspot.com or call Dan Johanneck, Kay Hegge, Wayne Melbye, Sonia Spaeth, Joyce Johnson, Sandy Kegler, or Dale Knotek.
