studioblog: 9 August 2006

Studio Space confirmed

We now have a place to hold the studio. Not bad getting this settled less than 20 days from the start of the semester.

I met with Alan Hartley of the Inter Transit Partnership on Monday and came to agreement on terms for the space in the Central Station. They see the project as an important community activity that has broad overlap with their mission and future development. The timing is key. Yesterday was spent editing the lease and sending versions to James Moyer, GVSU Vice President for Facilities Planning, Mick Doxey GVSU Insurance Officer, Pat Smith of the GVSU Council (Lawyer) office, the GVSU Johnson Center for Philanthropy, the Department of Art and Design, and the ITP who'll send it to their Lawyer for revision. Part of the arrangement was to develop a security policy with ITP. I'll post both documents when they are finished.

ITP is being very generous with the space which frees up more funds for project and visiting artists. We'll also reduce our past grant amount by 25%. There is a slight risk in that if a viable long-term tenant comes along, we may have to move mid-project.

If you haven't had a chance yet I strongly recommend spending some time with the preliminary texts. It would be good if everyone could read the John Stilgoe book, Outside Lies Magic, and listen to all of the mp3 lectures on Soul and the City:Art, LIterature and Urban Life. These texts set a nice historic and methodological pretext for our work.