Mpls attacks art yet again
Posted by: admin in cutting the arts lifeline (budget), Art is the first thing that goes out the window, Ah Minneapolis..., Struggling small art organizations, Commerce and the failure of art, Americans pretty much hate artists, Artistic failure in AmericaThe Belfry Center, which calls itself a “radical Social Center in Minneapolis,” and cites as its mission “to foster democracy and build community through the arts, activism, media, and education,” has claimed in a recent myspace bulletin that it is under attack by the city of Minneapolis.
They claim: “We have been ordered to cease nearly all all of our events because we do not have entertainment or food licenses… When we reached the office that issued our letter we were told that the zoning of our location makes getting those licenses for all intents and purposes impossible.”
If you’d like to help the Belfry Center, you can check out the list of donations they’re seeking on their wishlist, you can inquire about donations, volunteering, or membership here, or you can email them regarding support at belfrycenter(at)gmail(dot)com.
Here’s the full bulletin:
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Sunday, March 30, 2008 Belfry Center State of Affairs Dear Members of the Community, The current location of the Belfry & Bat Annex Library at 3753 Bloomington Ave is currently under duress by the city of Minneapolis. We have been ordered to cease nearly all all of our events because we do not have entertainment or food licenses. This means all of our music shows and Food Not Bombs are cancelled at this specific location to avoid fines from the city. When we reached the office that issued our letter we were told that the zoning of our location makes getting those licenses for all intents and purposes impossible. They had a scanned copy of one of our fliers for the March Fest included in the letter and the representative was looking at our Myspace page while we asked for answers. The city of Minneapolis is surveilling our community’s actions and events and wants its coffers filled at the price of a collectively and rather simply run arts space and library. A space that thought (somewhat naively) that a 501-C3 wasn’t the only way to do this. A space whose building is far from being up to code but had cheap enough rent to be a relatively sustainable commodity in our community. This particular location is no longer right for our goals. The Belfry’s 3753 Bloomington Ave location will have to close. The search for a more fitting space is on and in the meantime our money-generating events are cancelled, which means we need help tying up loose ends and making rent for the duration of our time at this address. So if you have ever been to a show at the Belfry, checked out a zine, danced till 4, had an event or meeting, looked at the art, or just hung out now is the time to chip in that extra $2 you didn’t want to donate the first time around. Benefit shows, volunteering, and donations at the events we will be able to have at this location will be so greatly appreciated by our small collective. We invite you all to get involved/contact us/come to a collective meeting to talk about the future we envision for the Belfry as well as ways to better subvert the capitalistic and suffocating actions of our local government. Thank you for your support and keep your ears open for more updates on the future of the Belfry and the Bat Annex Library. Love, |
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April 7th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Sure, Minneapolis is “attacking” to “fill its coffers” unless the collective is left alone — until a dozen people are killed when they can’t get out during a fire. Then Minneapolis is neglecting the safety of its citizens. Hm, which is better?
April 7th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Thanks for your comment, Chris.
As for fire safety, I appreciate your interest in that issue, but I’ll leave comment on it to all of the fire safety bloggers out there.
This blog’s about artistic failure, and heaven forbid that I water down the product!
April 8th, 2008 at 8:29 am
zoning? sounds fishy being that there’s a restaurant two doors down (under new ownership) a small market next door, and a small string of other storefronts. There is simply more to this than the Big Bad City preventing _____. Gotta be.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Might be worth a little diggin’, eh?
At the very least, discovering a double-standard might be another checkmark against the idea of MN as a bastion of arts-love.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
On the other hand, it might just be the typical ineptitude of artist-types who, with all their anti-social prickliness, just don’t know how to work with or within the system…
April 9th, 2008 at 9:16 am
As a collective member of the Belfry, I’d like to say:
Thank you to whoever posted this and suggested helping us. We have existed in our space for over 3 years as a radical lending library, art gallery, meeting space, and sometime music space. We are collectively run, and some, but not all of us are artists.
As for the current situation and licensing/fire safety, we’ve had the fire dept. come through recently and we checked out fine. The issue was that the city thought we were making a fortune having Food Not Bombs come in and give out free salvaged food, and having a guitar plugged in to an amp.
We would like to thank everyone who has continued to support us over the years, and esp. now, and to those of you who are trash talking- we are part of a DIY community- if you are not Doing anything, don’t offer us advice/criticism on the space we have donated endless hours and dollars to to make our community a more friendly, productive one.
We are planning on vacating our current space at the end of May to spend our summer applying for nonprofit status, finding a new and bigger building to better suit our needs, and applying for the proper licenses. So much for artist-types being inept.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
If questioning the public contentions of both sides of something that is being discussed publicly is considered ‘trash talking’, then I for one am more than happy to be called a trash talker. That said, it sounds like the contention by the city that issuance of a F&B Licence is prohibited in that location do to zoning is complete BS on the behalf of the city. A visit to that block just seems to defy the contention of the city ie- the city excuse is BS from the city. Now a short list of questions - how many times have the city sent over a couple of squad cars to respond to late-night noise complaints by neighbors? (Just saying that this is often a consideration that a municipality will consider before granting licences) Why should the City enforce zoning and licencing codes on one buiding or business and not another? (Like the Caribbean restaurant on the corner of the same block, they had to apply for and procure the licences required) The City of Mpls does not selectively enforce zoning and licencing statutes, they are applied across the board and when violations are reported or found, acted upon. A collective cry of being stifled by the man, and that any questioning of your operations is somehow trash talking - which is the perception of some of the readers of this story - is counter productive on the behalf of your cause or venture or operation or community or whatever you’d like to refer to it as. Now could it be that the City of Mpls and the City of St.Paul are cracking down on self declared ‘radicals’ in general or making things difficult for y’all and those who fit the ‘profile’ of the radical? Quite likely, looking at the ‘friends’ list on the Myspace page - it fits the profile. And hey, more power to y’all, do what you have to and do what you must - it’s the wonderful thing about a free and open society. Don’t be surprised though, when your cause runs counter to the cause of another and the cause of another pushes back when you push or poke at the Doings of of others. To make the assertion that another is Doing nothing because they are not Doing what you is a bit cheeky, don’t you think?