Galapagos Packs Its Bags And Hits The Road
You know its not true unless you read it in The New York Times. Thats probably what you told yourself back when you started hearing whispers about [Galapagos Art Space], Williamsburgs cultural rock, closing down orGod forbidmoving. When we [printed the rumors](http://www.nypress.com/blogx/display_blog.cfm?bid=14568791&day=20&startmonth=12&startyear=2006) back in December, they were still just rumors. But now what we all feared has been confirmed by the [voice of the nation](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/theater/30gala.html?ref=nyregion): The bar/performance space is indeed moving to Dumbo. Apparently, Galapagos is scheduled to transplant into a 102-year-old, 10,000-square-foot former horse stable at 16 Main Street in the spring or summer of 2008, where it will stay for at least the next 15 years.
From The Times: The building is owned by Two Trees Management, which more or less created the neighborhood of Dumbo and owns 2.5 million square feet of real estate there. Galapagos was wooed by Two Trees, which also owns the space occupied by St. Anns Warehouse, just around the corner from the new Galapagos space.
It seems the thanks founder Robert Elmes gets for breathing life into Williamsburg is a rent hikeby $10,000 a month in December 2005, and by another 30 percent starting next month. So Elmes started to consider migrating elsewhere, perhaps Bushwick or Berlin (no, thats not a trendy new Brooklyn hood).
In addition to the move, Galapagos will be getting an advisory board to speak to financial issues, including Karen Brooks Hopkins (the president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music), Susan Feldman (the artistic director of St. Anns Warehouse) and Ed Townsend (a former chairman of Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts). On the bright side, the new locale will be New York Citys first green performance space. Guess you cant really buck the environment just to call yourself a counter culturalist.
Photo courtesy of [jrubinic on Flickr]