What | Where | Who |Why

 

The Arts Exchange will be a mixed-use development with several major components. A Creative Work Center will provide a central location to consolidate services to and provide support for emerging and established arts businesses. Office spaces, shared conference spaces, and more than 23 multi-purpose creation spaces will be designed to meet the needs of area artists and arts businesses.

 

 

The facility will be anchored by three major resident arts organizations: The Boys' Choir of Tallahassee, the Tallahassee Ballet, and the Council on Culture & Arts. Many of the rehearsal spaces will be designed to permit visitors to view the creation of performing art in progress without disturbing the work within.

 

 

A black box theatre seating up to 400 will be programmed by COCA to be a destination for theatre, music, films, and other entertainment. This 5,000 square foot flexible assembly space can also be configured for banquets, trade shows, and meetings.

 

 

A professional scene shop or “Torpedo Factory” style working artist center will provide local performing groups the means to build sets, props, and costumes as well as generate revenue for the facility by building for industrial and commercial events. Like the rehearsal/creation spaces, the scene shop will become a tourist attraction, where members of the public can view the business of the scenic arts.

 

 

Approximately 50 units of affordable live/work housing spaces will be built specifically to meet the needs of those creative professionals whose income qualifies them for such housing. The housing developer, Artspace Projects, Inc., is based in Minneapolis. Artspace Projects is the nation’s leading non-profit real estate developer for the arts, whose mission is to create, foster, and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations.

 

 

Shops and restaurants, including an urban supermarket, will serve the incubator tenants and residents in the surrounding areas. Businesses would be favored based on their market compatibility with the arts. The market-rate rents paid by these retailers will flow directly into the operating budget of the incubator space, keeping rates affordable for artists and non-profit organizations.

 

 

A Café/Coffeehouse located inside the incubator space can provide for the food service needs of the tenants and also serve residents and visitors as a gathering area for visual, literary, and performing artists to share ideas with others between rehearsals, classes, workshops, or performances. The Café/Coffeehouse facility would also be used in the evenings for informal public performances and readings.

 

 

What | Where | Who |Why