galapagos-detroit

Galapagos leaving DUMBO, moving to cheaper, more artist-friendly neighborhood (Detroit)

site of the new Detroit Galapagos
IMAGE

Art space and venue Galapagos was originally in Williamsburg in the space that became Public Assembly and then Black Bear Bar. It moved to DUMBO in 2007 and now rising rents have caused it to move somewhere cheaper: Detroit. Say the owners:

Simply put, New York City has become too expensive to continue incubating young artists. The white-hot real estate market burning through affordable cultural habit is no longer a crisis, it’s a conclusion.

You can’t paint at night in your kitchen and hope to be a good artist. It doesn’t work that way.

The canaries in New York City’s real estate gold mine and the basis population of its creative ecosystem – its young artists and thinkers – are no longer talking about the next show they hope to land. They’re talking about the next city they can land in once their current lease runs out.

Read more about it here. The last night for Galapagos will be December 18. Gothamist says that property owners Two Trees plan to keep it as an arts space.

The new Galapagos is nine buildings totaling 600,000 square feet, which owner Robert Elmes says he got “for the price of a small apartment in New York City” and includes a 10,000 square foot lake. (You may remember Galapagos’ “lake” when it was on N. 6th St.) It will also be the site of the Detroit Biennial in 2016 which they are starting.