Will Intermedia Arts Be the Next to Fall?

After months of bad news for local arts organizations, over the past few days we’ve gotten a flurry of emails with still more sad tidings, this time from the folks at Intermedia Arts. This 35-year-old multidisciplinary arts center—home to an array of beloved programs, from the popular B-Girl Be hip-hop festival to its acclaimed literary series, visual arts exhibitions and annual performance spectacle, Naked Stages—is in the midst of a funding crisis that threatens their very survival. In what has become an all-too-familiar refrain, the organization attributes its current budget shortfall to same the hounds barking at the door of most (if not all) other nonprofit organizations of like size, whether they’re arts-focused or not.

Photo courtesy Intermedia Arts and mnartists.org

Intermedia Arts’ website describes their situation bluntly: “Over the past several weeks [we have] experienced sharp reductions and significant delays in funding. As a mid-sized arts organization, we rely on foundations and funders for our general operating support—foundations and funders who have lost enormous amounts of their assets in our current economic crisis.”

The circumstances are undeniably stark. All their full-time staff have already been moved into diminished positions where they’ll work part time, as contract or hourly staff, and as of January 9, the gallery will be shuttered and poetry library hours canceled until future notice.

The fact is Intermedia Arts is fighting for its life, but the organization is fighting. They’re rallying the troops with a community town hall meeting this Friday at 5:30 pm. There they hope people in the arts community will offer up their solutions for Intermedia Arts’ immediate struggles, but they would also like for the conversation to range broadly enough to include thoughts on how arts supporters and artists can work to better ensure the longevity of other arts organizations in our region. To this end, they’re asking “all friends, fans, supporters, members, artists, participants—anyone and everyone who cares about the future of Intermedia Arts” to attend and offer ideas for the center’s long-term survival, as a show of support and, of course, to open their wallets for the cause.

The Intermedia Arts Town Hall Meeting will be begin at 5:30 pm on Friday, December 19 on site in Minneapolis. (They’ve indicated that free childcare will be available.)

Some related links:

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “Money Woes Spur Drastic Cuts at Intermedia”

MPR: “Intermedia Arts closes gallery, lays off staff”

MinnPost.com: “Intermedia Arts troubles: Is art the next thing to go?”

Minnesota Independent: “Slammed by economy, Minneapolis’ Intermedia Arts to Close Gallery, Lay Off Full-Time Staff”

MinnesotaPlaylist.com: “Will Intermedia Arts Be Next?”

Fresh.mn: “The Struggle at Intermedia Arts”

Southwest Journal: “Intermedia Arts in Financial ‘Crisis'”

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