Phew, wow, yes, PRESS is moving. In fact, the press has moved! From 105 Main Street to our new location, 49 Main Street. We will be reopening on June 20th at the first Downstreet Art Opening of 2013, from 6-9 pm. We hope you can make it!
Big thanks to new BHIP intern Antoine Scalbert, and former interns Andy Cross and Adriana Alexatos for help packing. It’s amazing how much stuff and equipment we have acquired over our two year run.
AND, a big shout out to Connor Bros Moving. OMG, they were so great. They clearly knew what they were doing and were smart about it. PLUS they kept to my three rules:
- Everyone must stay safe.
- The equipment must stay safe.
- They have to deal with me and my nerves.
Here are some great images of the event:
So why are we moving? Lots of different reasons, some days one seems more important than the others.
1. The Dowlin Building, where we spent the past two years is for sale. There’s no heat in that building, and it may go offline for renovations in the Fall, or someone could buy it and we would have to leave in a month. So after a winter of space heaters and the like, we are glad to be down the block.
2. Gallery 51 typically gets 25% more foot traffic than we do. Many people just don’t make it past Holden Street. We are excited to see how this impacts what we do at PRESS.
3. There is now a door between PRESS and Gallery 51. This will allow us to share resources, create connections and who knows what else. We are all looking forward to this new relationship.
4. We need extra space for the 2013-2014 academic year. The building where Melanie’s classes are taught at MCLA is getting renovated during the next academic year. So, part of this new location will be home to some of her classes. Melanie is especially excited about the prospect of having classrooms, PRESS and her office all in the same place, even if only for a year.
So you see, it really depends on the day and the situation as to which of these reasons is most important. They are not in any specific order here.
We look forward to showing off our new space soon. Melanie and Antoine and Leeya, the PRESS summer interns, will be hard at work next week getting the space ready for the big June 20 opening. Hope to see you there!
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