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Photo by Nicole Aufderhar
Intermedia Arts Executive Director Theresa Sweetland said “there was a sense of suddenness” to the financial crisis that hit the organization one year ago.
By Dylan Thomas
Intermedia Arts is recovering from a financial crisis
THE WEDGE — Last December, when a budget shortfall forced Intermedia Arts to lay off staff and close its galleries, the community arts organization appeared to be on the brink.
During a hastily organized Dec. 19 town hall meeting, Board of Directors Chair Jim Farstad described a sudden and significant drop-off in income. Corporate and foundation supporters, slammed by The Great Recession, had cut back or delayed funding.
“We need you to help us now,” Farstad said, issuing his plea for donations to a theater packed with about 200 supporters.
A year later, the 36-year-old nonprofit has turned a corner. That is thanks, in part, to its multi-faceted response to a financial crisis, said Laura Zabel, executive director of Springboard for the Arts, a St. Paul-based consulting group.
“I feel they tested all of the things that people recommend: sharing space, mergers, new programs, different staffing structure,” Zabel said. “They’re really pushing it on all fronts, which is why I think they were able to bounce back as quickly as they have.”
Farstad described a year when emotions veered from fear to resolve to, now, hope. Full-time staff, slashed from seven positions to one, was back up to four in November.
“It feels like we’re succeeding today,” he said. “We have not resolved all of our open issues, we have not implemented all of our ideas, but we have made huge progress in a short amount of time.”
New roommates
This past year, Intermedia Arts tested a number of approaches to balancing corporate and foundation giving with increased earned revenue and individual donations. Not all were successful.
Art-house DVD rental store Cinema Revolution leased space in Intermedia Arts’ Lyndale Avenue building to open a new retail location, its fifth in six years. It quickly closed.
In August, the new Cinema Revolution Society incorporated as a nonprofit. A partner organization to Intermedia Arts, the two will collaborate to present the Dance Film Project Dec. 11–12 at Intermedia.
Other tenants proved a better match for the space. Lyndale United Church of Christ and Salem English Lutheran Church signed an 18-month lease for use of office space, the 120-seat theater and galleries in April.
Farstad called the churches — temporarily homeless while renovations are made to the former Salem site — “great roommates.” The rental income covered about half the monthly expenses for the Intermedia building, making it possible to reopen the galleries for four days a week.
Intermedia Executive Director Theresa Sweetland said Intermedia would explore a “co-working” model in coming months, allowing the self-employed to set up shop in the building for a fee — another source of much-needed earned income.
A merger
In October, Intermedia announced a merger with Phillips Community Television (PCTV), a 15-year-old nonprofit that teaches media skills to Minneapolis teens. Combining the organizations returned Intermedia to its roots; it was founded on the West Bank in 1973 as University Community Video.
PCTV Program Director Michael Hay said the two organizations served similar communities, which could have put them in competition for arts grants and donations. With corporate and foundation giving still far reduced from pre-recession levels, the benefits of a merger were obvious to leaders of both organizations.
“It doesn’t make sense anymore for us to be so fragmented,” Hay said.
Zabel said other small and mid-sized arts organizations came to similar conclusions in recent months, whether that means simply sharing a space, merging two entities or both.
In St. Paul, two arts education organizations, COMPAS and Young Audiences of Minnesota, merged over summer. Rosalux Gallery recently announced plans to move into Soo Visual Arts Center, a nonprofit gallery located just down the street from Intermedia.
Silver lining
The past two years have been a tumultuous time for arts organizations across the country. Locally, big institutions like the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center announced cuts; some smaller organizations, like the Minnesota Center for Photography and Theatre de la Jeune Lune closed.
Zabel said a recession — even a very deep one — was rarely the root problem for organizations that struggled or closed.
“It’s something that can stress existing problems to the breaking point,” she said.
Intermedia’s leadership took that lesson to heart, refocusing on core programs that serve the community and artists in the community. They plan to turn their building, once a burden on the budget, into a source of revenue.
During this rebuilding phase, Sweetland said Intermedia would “foster” some programs it can’t fully support now at other local arts organizations. The Naked Stages theater series, for example, moved intact to Pillsbury House Theatre for its upcoming season, and Hamline University took over the GLBT Reading Series.
Farstad said they were careful not to simply “lob off” programs, and that the re-focusing on Intermedia’s core mission was the “silver lining” to the past year’s storm clouds.
“It’s no secret that if you want to build loyal supporters and you want to build solid audiences, that’s not where cost cutting leads to success,” he said. “That’s where great programming leads to success.”
‘Video, Victual and Vows’
Intermedia Arts and Phillips Community Television celebrate their recent merger with “3V: Video, Victuals and Vows,” 6 p.m.–9 p.m. Dec. 3 at Intermedia, 2822 Lyndale Ave. S. $25 suggested donation.
For more information or to RSVP, call 871-4444 or email info@intermediaarts.org, or purchase tickets online at brownpapertickets.com/event/88830.
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Newest development proposal: A courtyard with pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene
UPDATED August 31, 2010, 11:04am
By Nick Halter
A new development proposal in Uptown calls for the construction of a three-level restaurant with a rooftop patio, plus a private, ground-level courtyard with a pool and movie screen in the heart of the Uptown nightlife scene. The courtyard would go between Cowboy Slim’s and the new restaurant, which would be built directly across from the Lagoon Cinema on Lagoon Avenue, according to a plan submitted to the city of Minneapolis. The owner of the site is Uptown Gassen LLC, which is owned by Clark Gassen. Gassen is proposing a 3,000 square-foot, single-level retail building that would go along Girard Avenue between Lake Street and Lagoon. Underneath the proposed development would be a 125-car parking ramp. The restaurant’s three
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Harriet concession contract nears approval
UPDATED August 30, 2010, 1:00pm
By Jake Weyer
1 Comment
The board will decide this month whether to approve local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle.
After more than a year of community review and a selection process that narrowed a field of nearly a dozen applicants, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is scheduled to vote this month on a new Lake Harriet concession contract.
Staff recommended local restaurateur Kim Bartmann’s concept, Bread & Pickle, based on the suggestion of a community group that reviewed and interviewed the applicants. That group was made up of former members of a Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) the Park Board assembled last year after public outcry over a proposed concession change that would have required a new building. The CAC examined concession opportunities and drafted recommendations used to review applicants.
“The CAC was really a lengthy, drawn-out, long process,” said Park Board General Manager Don Siggelkow. “But it yielded the information and the understanding that I think brought this conclusion the way it needed to happen.”
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Urban fashion store and art gallery opens on Hennepin
UPDATED August 26, 2010, 10:14am
By Nick Halter
With rare Michael Jordan sneakers dating back to 1985, local art work, a DJ table and pinewood floors, Moh Habib on Aug. 21 unveiled Studiiyo 23, an urban fashion store and art gallery at 2319 Hennepin Ave. Everything about Studiiyo 23, from the name to the design to the merchandise, is a reflection of Habib, a 34-year-old world traveler who spent his high school and college years in Minnesota. “In those travels — I’ve been to 30 countries and 169 cities so far — I picked up the best of what I like from all those spots, and what I did was try to merge everything I love in life into one space,” he said. Habib has spent the last eight years working in Japan and Switzerland, first for Northwest Airlines and later as a
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Bryant Lake Bowl operator plans to buy Casey’s Bar and Grill
UPDATED August 25, 2010, 2:12pm
By Nick Halter
Kim Bartmann, who runs popular Lake Street establishments Bryant Lake Bowl and Barbette, said she has a purchase agreement for Casey’s Bar and Grill, 3510 Nicollet Ave. Bartmann wouldn’t offer specifics on what she will do with the space. She is asking to present to the Kingfield and Lyndale neighborhood groups soon to show them her plans. She said the renovation will last a couple weeks and said work will be done on the kitchen and dining area. Casey’s has a very limited food menu. “We’re a very food-focused company, so I think that will be a major change,” she said. Bartmann said Casey’s current owner has taken good care of the place and kept it clean. “It has a lot of potential,&rdq
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Neighborhood notebook
By Dylan Thomas, Nick Halter and Sarah McKenzie
THE WEDGELHENA hires new newspaper editorLowry Hill East Neighborhood Association hired a new editor for its monthly newspaper, The Wedge. Wedge resident Quentin Skinner took over with the July issues of The Wedge. Best known as the theater critic for City Pages, Skinner also has written two novels set in the Wedge, where he has lived for 15 years, according to an announcement posted Aug. 2 on thewedge.org. ——— WHITTIER Rex Hardware demolishedWrecking crews in early August demolished the former Rex Hardware building at 2601 Lyndale Ave. S. The demolition came 11 weeks after the Minneapolis City Council overturned a Heritage
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Parks update // Lake Harriet health
By jake weyer
Park Board applies for grant to study Lake Harriet healthThe Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has decided it’s time for Lake Harriet to get a checkup. The board frequently receives complaints about the lake’s smells and surface algae and is hoping to perform a diagnostic study — funded by a $55,000 matching grant from the state — to see just how healthy the popular body of water is. “These grants are specifically being put out to prevent lakes from being designated as impaired lakes,” said the board’s Environmental and Field Services Director Debra Lynn Pilger. Pilger presented the details of the “clean water partnership grant” to the board at its Aug. 4 meeting. A
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Green digest // More mini markets
By Dylan Thomas
Farmers market season is at its late-summer peak, and more neighborhoods this year have easy access to fresh tomatoes and sweet corn thanks to an expansion of mini farmers markets sites. The number of mini farmers markets located mainly in low-income neighborhoods has tripled between 2008 and 2010, reported the Whittier-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), which established the market program in collaboration with the city. The Walker Place Farmers Market in the East Harriet neighborhood near a senior housing facility was one of the mini farmers markets to debut this summer. The Stevens Square Farmers Market, Southwest’s only other mini farmers market site, opened in 2008. The mini farmers markets are limited to five or fewer
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Wine may flow, after all
By Dylan Thomas
Uptown wine tasting was in question this springStart working on your swirl, sniff and slurp technique: The annual wine tasting sponsored by Hennepin Lake Liquors may go on this year, after all. This spring it appeared the wine tasting, an important fundraiser for Uptown-area neighborhoods, might not return for its 28th year. In mid-August, though, event organizer Pat Fleetham said he was nearly ready to announce a fall wine tasting. Fleetham said he was “tentatively proposing” a date in October for the tasting but still needed to finalize agreements with event sponsors before he could announce a time and location. The event in recent years had been held in early June. In March, though, Fleetham wrote in an email to
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Biz buzz // New improv theater
By Nick Halter
New Lyn-Lake improv theater will focus on long-formA new improv theater is coming to Lyn-Lake this fall, leasing the space formerly held by Lava Lounge clothing store at 3037 Lyndale Ave. Huge Improve Theater, the nonprofit company that is leasing the space, plans to have a roughly 100-seat theater open in late October and is pursuing a beer and wine license from the city. While Minneapolis already has improv theaters like Comedy Sportz and Brave New Workshop, HUGE Executive Director Butch Roy said the Lyn-Lake theater will be dedicated to a unique form of improv — long-form. No theater in the Twin Cities is devoted to the form. Most know improv in its short form through the “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” TV
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Schools notebook // Southwest steady on AYP
By Dylan Thomas
Six Minneapolis Public Schools in Southwest met goals for student proficiency in reading and math this year, down from eight schools in 2009. The district as a whole saw slightly fewer schools making AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, toward student achievement goals. About 14 percent of district schools met benchmarks on state standardized tests, down from nearly 19 percent in 2009. The slide means more district schools will face escalating sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind law, although many in education say the law sets an unachievable goal. Approved by Congress in 2001, No Child Left Behind set a goal of 100 percent proficiency on math and reading assessments by 2014. But the ever-rising benchmarks mean more schools every year are
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Park Board organizing LRT advisory group
By jake weyer
Adding another facet to the ongoing Southwest light rail discussion, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board voted last month to organize a citizens advisory committee (CAC) to mitigate the impact of the route on parkland. Park Board commissioners, City Council members, neighborhood associations, Mayor R.T. Rybak and County Commissioner Gail Dorfman will appoint the 17-member CAC. The group will consider historical, cultural, visual, social, and safety issues associated with the 14-mile Southwest Light Rail Transit line (LRT). The route will start Downtown, travel along the Kenilworth trail between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, then stretch through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka, ending in Eden Prairie. Along the way, it will intersect or run
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