Allan Appel Photo
Alan Neider is lighting nine vacant storefronts on Orange Street near Center with these delicate biomorphic lamps fashioned from found and recycled wire and bulbs. He’s part of a new wave of artists coming to the Ninth Square with a plan, and a short-term challenge.
As of Aug. 31, the storefronts they illuminate will be vacant no longer. Neider and the arts groups to which he belongs, plus three other arts entrepreneurs with a focus on the green, the reusable and the local, are moving into 71 Orange St.
They’re moving in — and lighting up the street — as part of Project Storefronts, a partnership between the city Department of Cultural Affairs and economic development unit, which ponied up a grant of $30,000
Alexis Zanghi is also moving in, part of the leading edge of what the city hopes will be a new hive of creative people and organizations wanting to make art and do well for themselves and the city.
Thanks to the pilot program’s implementing grant, they move in rent-free, have three months or so to make a go of it, and receive help with initial signage and paint.
Zanghi and the other participants were selected from a field of 50 by Margaret Bodell, project manager for the Department of Cultural Affairs.
Bodell said the city is tapping into the national “creative economy” trend of stimulating the municipal economy through transforming empty storefront into “pop up” temporary new uses.
Zanghi was putting finishing touches the other day on her “curated bookstore,” called Detritus. It’s going to sell chapbooks, artists books, all kinds of zines, especially handmade and the ephemeral; Detritus will also screen films and have readings.
That pallet she’s putting up is her shelving. She said the store is “furnished entirely from salvaged materials.”
A third occupant of Project Storefronts is Ken Janke and his nonprofit, The Grove. They’ll occupy one of the larger spaces where artists or individuals with small organizations such as David Henry (putting in lights) can network.
At this incubator, Janke (at bottom of photo) said, networking involves more than exchanging business cards. He cited Toronto’s Centre for Innovation as a model for the Elm City.
Henry’s group is called Ten Thousand Homes. He said it promotes community development through orphan care in sub-Saharan Africa.
When the paint dries, he’ll be sitting at a large table with 16 to 20 spaces among other like minded entrepreneurial problem-solving artists, recyclers, and creator.
“We’re there to support and help incubate social mission ideas through the arts and otherwise,” he said.
Bodell said at least three nights a week Upcycle Arts will be organizing a smaller group, Elm City Handmade, to share how they work and what they charge.
“Though we love art and artists, this is about how my business is doing,” she said.
“We’re going to say: Your crochet hook costs five dollars, the wool costs $15, your time is worth between $12 and 15. Now how much should the booties sell for?”
As she showed a reporter around the build-out in progress that was smelling of new paint and alive with the tapping of hammers, she added, “Too long artisans and creative people and social change agents suffered without business education.”
“For every dollar invested in the arts, it returns eight,” Janke added. “When the city gets behind artists [and social entrepreneurs], the investment is great.”
The selected artists and organizations have 90 days of rent-free time allowed thus far by the grant and the landlord, Residences at Ninth Square, to see if their businesses take off.
If the landlord rents the space, Project Storefronts may have to go elsewhere. Or if the artist’s enterprise is not moving forward, then some or all can be asked to go and others more promising take their place.
All competitive in a quiet creative kind of way, yet also professional. Each applicant was required to submit business plans.
Zanghi’s was 20 pages along, complete with samples from her inventory.
“We have a lot of art. Now we need business,” said Bodell, who herself operated arguably the first “pop up” store in New Haven, right on the same site, beginning in 1984 to 1990. She said she had to vacate when the Ninth Square rental complex went up.
She said she’d been looking for storefronts for at least six months. When the United Way moved out about a year ago, she went into action only in July when details were worked out between the landlord, Nine Squares Residences, and the city.
She got all the furniture for the space from Yale Recycling, Benjamin Moore contributed the paint, and the artist and entrepreneurs much sweat equity, as was required.
Although Aug. 31 is the ribbon cutting date, the hive will be humming well before. On Aug. 24 Open Studios will hold an event at Project Storefronts.
On Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. Alexis Zanghi and her Detritus will be having its opening.