MEET THE “NEW” GOWANUS - COMING SOON!

CALLING ALL CAPRICORNS

IT’S TIME FOR JANUARY PARTY PLANNING

This year’s annual Capricorn’s Birthday Bash will be Sunday afternoon, January 11th (unless you talk us into a different date!)

Capricorns are a resourceful and tenacious bunch of do-gooders by nature, but they also like to party down, and since so many Spoke the Hubbers have birthdays on either side of the New Year, we thought we would, once again, throw ourselves our own collective “partay” and raise money for a worthy cause in lieu of presents. Past parties have raised thousands of dollars for Heifer International, Kiva, The Consolation Center-Haiti, and Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. This year, we feel we need to support our healthcare workers battling on the front lines of the ebola crisis, so we will be raising funds through fun this year for Doctors Without Borders.

If you are a Capricorn -- or feel you are secretly a Capricorn at heart -- and want to join the goat girls in making this next birthday bash your own celebration too, contact spoke@spokethehub.org and let’s get busy!

Our birthday party concept this year is: “Learn Something New!”an afternoon of workshops where old goats and friends learn new "tricks" (such as How To Make Sushi or How To Design and Silk Screen Your Own T-shirts.) The afternoon culminates with birthday cake, dancing and a champagne toast, naturally. 

Got a skill or craft you would like to teach (or suggest a skill or craft you would like to learn?)  If so, please contact  spoke@spokethehub.org .

SPEAKING OF BIRTHDAYS, WANT TO ADD YOURS TO STH’S 2015 CALENDAR?

Also, please order your own STH calendars NOW. Calendars are $15 each, but if you order 5 or more calendars before November 21st  you will receive our pre-Thanksgiving holiday bulk discount of $10.00 per calendar.

All proceeds from calendar sales go toward supporting STH’s ongoing community dance, art and fitness programs for children and adults of all ages.

» Apply Now

NEED NYC SPACE FOR YOUR SUMMER CERTIFICATION INTENSIVES?

STUDENT/FACULTY BENEFIT CONCERTS:

Saturday, December 13 @ 5:00pm & 7:00pm
Sunday, December 14 @ 5:00pm
Gowanus Arts – 295 Douglass Street (between 3rd & 4th Avenues)

ADVANCED TICKET SALE ONLY:  $20 Adults and Children seated on chairs / $5 Children who can sit on floor; babies and small children who can sit on a lap come free. Tickets available on line starting: Nov. 10th

Spoke’s annual Student/Faculty Benefit Concert is a chance for our stellar faculty and student body to showcase the fine work they’ve been creating during the first fall semester of classes at Spoke the Hub. All proceeds from the Benefit Concerts will go toward covering the costs of our expanded summer scholarship program, as well as helping to defray production costs of STH’s annual LOCAL PRODUCE festivities, which present free Dance, Music, Theater and Art by local artists to the general public each spring in Park Slope’s most luscious community green spaces.

Can you help out at the Benefit Shows? We need volunteers to help with concessions, box office, ushering, set-up and clean up. Please e-mail maril@spokethehub.org if you can help.

Donate Baked Goods: Donations of baked goods are needed for our bake sale and refreshment stand with all proceeds going to support STH community arts programs. Please e-mail maril@spokethehub.org if you plan to donate a treat for the sale.

WAYS TO HELP SUPPORT SPOKE THE HUB THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

ADVERTISE IN STH PROGRAMS
STH's 2014-2015 Performance Season will feature over 30 mostly family friendly indoor and outdoor shows of all genres this year - thus, your ads can reach over 10,000 upbeat, culturally aware and active Brooklynites and visitors in 2015! 

SHOP WITH A PURPOSE: Amazon Smile
There's a new way to support STH’s work at no cost to you. Thanks to Amazon Smile, you can now shop with a purpose. Amazon Smile is a new program that remits a small percentage of purchases made using Smile.Amazon.com to charities like STH. Simply sign in to Amazon using smile.amazon.com each time you shop.

AFTER BLACK FRIDAY, GIVE BACK ON TUESDAY 
STH is taking part in this year’s #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give. Please consider making a donation to STH this year and help support our ongoing programs plus our upcoming “Stairway to Heaven” Gowanus Arts Development Project Capital Campaign. 

As of November 1st, the GOWANUS ARTS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT will formerly launch.  This new, million dollar plus “makeover” of the current Gowanus Arts building -- a 15,000sf former 1880s soap factory which has served as home to Spoke the Hub and dozens of other artists of all stripes since 1985 -- is a desperately needed facelift and re-structuring of this well loved community arts facility.  The "new" Gowanus hopes to serve as a model of sustainability for other small, grass roots community arts organizations to replicate, in addition to better meeting the needs of local artists and community residents into the next millennium.

In addition to installing a much needed new stairway, the proposed building improvements include: 

GROUND FLOOR: Plans include a new, expanded, ADA compliant theater/community event space; a community art gallery and artists’ collective under the direction of master print maker and teaching artist, Gail Flanery; a studio art teaching space; and a new, lobby and box office area. Peter Karl Recording Studios will continue on the ground floor.

SECOND FLOOR: Brooklyn Music Factory’s newly expanded music school, practice rooms, and new music performance space will take over about 3,000sf of the 2nd floor (headed by Nate Shaw and Peira Moinester); artist Dale Williams and photographers Marc Goldberg and Jaime Bermudez Esteban will also continue working out of their 2nd floor studios. Additionally, a 1,600sf green roof and terrace will be added on the 2nd floor, accessible to all building tenants and guests.

THIRD FLOOR: Spoke the Hub will continue our dance, theater, art and wellness programs in two expanded and improved studios on the third floor, plus a new lounge area outfitted with a community kitchen, headed by natural foods chef and teaching artist, Chef Sung Uni Li; additionally, a 4,400sf green roof we have dubbed “The Gowanus Sky Farm” is being designed by Gwen Schantz of the Brooklyn Grange where STH hopes to grow fresh produce for upcoming healthy cooking classes and catered events.

Needless to say, we here at STH are beyond excited about this new project and we have many, many people to thank for getting us to this beginning point! In particular, we wish to thank Roger Kapsalis, Director of Capital Services at Massey Knakal, for helping us secure initial financing, as well as architects Bob Braun, Ben & Susan Baxt and attorney Ian Kelley for helping us conduct our initial zoning research and general advisement on feasibility. 

For those of you who are feeling uber flush and altruistic and want to create this community center with us, here are some donation options:

YOU NAME IT

• For a $500,000 contribution or more, we will name our new 2,000sf theater and event space after you, your family, or a loved one;
• For a $100,000 we will name our new 2nd floor green roof, garden and terrace after you, your family, or a loved one;
• For $ 50,000 contribution, we will name our new community kitchen after you, your family, or a loved one;
• For $25,000 contribution, we will name our new 3rd floor lounge after you, your family, or a loved one;
• For $ 10,000 contribution - don’t laugh - we will name a rest room after you - after all, where would we be without rest rooms (and a sense of humor?);
• For $5,000 contribution, we name a step in our new “Stairway to Heaven" after you.

BUY A TILE

Elise Long, Founder/Artistic Director of STH, in collaboration with Claire Weissberg of Claireware Pottery on Union Street, will create two new community mosaics next year, one on the front facade of the STH Re:Creation Center on Union Street, and the other somewhere within the new Gowanus Arts complex on Douglass Street.

• For a contribution of $1,000, Clairewaire will make you an original name tile you can designate for placement in either arts center’s new community mosaics. 
• For a contribution of $1,500, you can have your name tiles embedded in both arts centers as a memorial to your generosity for posterity.

Every little bit helps. Brick by brick. Tile by tile. We thank you, in advance, for your continued support and patronage.

Spoke the Hub is a tax-exempt, 501c3 organization. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

SEEKING GENERAL CONTRACTORS & TRADESPEOPLE

In the next month, STH hopes to be soliciting bids and gathering “our people” together to build the new, improved Gowanus Arts center. Former dancer and CetraRuddy architect Ceacy Cooke will be donating her services to design the plans for our new center.

What can you do and will you join us in this community building effort?

• Electricians
• Carpentars
• Plumbers
• Masons
• Metalworkers
• Solar Installation Experts
• Landscape Designers
• Stained Glass Artists
• Sculptors
• Painters
• Craftspeople of every ilk
• Farmers and Garden Stewards

We are particularly seeking a general contractor who would be willing to donate and/or barter some of his/her services, and we are extremely interested in hiring women in the trades to work on this project with us. We hope to have plans ready for bidding soon.

If you - or someone you know - fits this description and might be interested in being part of this exciting renovation, please contact elise@spokethehub.org. We hope to have plans ready for bidding in the next few weeks.