by Sarah Allison
Brookland Artspace ground ground breaking project in NE D.C.
Dance Place and Artspace are pairing up in a $13 million arts campus housing project in northeast Washington D.C. The Brookland Artspace project includes 41 affordable live/work units for artists and their families with gallery and studio place. Dance Place, a D.C.’s modern dance company, will contribute a new performance rehearsal space and an education center.
Artspace is a national organization constructed back in ’79 in Minneapolis as a non-profit for artist residencies to improve communities. The organization works in property management, sustainability and consulting as a catalyst for arts. With projects from Portland to Reno to Tallahassee, it’s about time for the District to get more affordable housing for the arts.
However, with their new Brookland Artspace, their efforts should be questioned. Why tear down existing art space in place of a new building when that doesn’t truly help the artists working there now? The project is a great idea, but they really fouled up in evicting current artists for the new building. It would have been better for the community, artists and taxpayers to revamp another site.
Musician Justin Moyer, who performs as Edie Sedgwick, is one of the three displaced artists. “From my point of view, the project doesn’t make sense. Brookland Studios already functioned as low-cost artist studios/housing,” says Moyer. “The apartments Artspace will build will cost over two times as much as my studio did at Brookland. Of course, they will be nicer . . . but artists don’t need nice places to work. Above all, they need cheap places to work. And Brookland Studios was a cheap facility.”
Musician Justin Moyer (Edie Sedgwick)
Ground breaking begins this month for the new 57,000 square foot four-story building. The live-work spaces already have a waiting list and are still in need of funding for their next stage even with the D.C. Department of Housing and community Development $10.4 million stimulus. Moyer is first on the waiting list, but that is not helpful. For over a year he would not have a space and finding a studio to practice with his band is no easy task — not to mention with rising rents.
Musicians looking for space in D.C. are not given the same opportunities as the other arts. Publicly funded music-specific spaces in D.C. are not here. “Rock music is loud,” Moyer explains. “I’ve played music for almost 20 years now. No matter what you do to keep passerby safe — insulation, soundproofing, restricting practice hours – there is always someone ready to complain about your band practice.”
The industrial safety net by the railroad that Brookland used to be is no longer.
“Again, that’s the great irony of Artspace,” said Moyer. “They’ve torn down the one place I was able to go, play my drums, and not bother anybody, and they’ve done it in the name of art!”