When Jones was an under-21 student at CU, for example, she was missing out on shows at places like the Larimer Lounge and the Hi-Dive. For a lot of young people, that could be their entry point in participating in the arts scene.” “I think they’re really vital to our city. “They just are places that really provide something really valuable to our culture - places where people can experience challenging and new art forms, experimental forms of music and beauty,” Slater said. And I think Rhino and Glob have both … worked hard to make those places focused around building community.”Īnd that’s just as important to fans as it is to artists. “I think it’s an issue of accessibility for people from all different underserved and marginalized communities that don’t feel welcome or safe in night clubs or bars or places they can’t get into because of their age or might not want to go to because they just don’t feel welcome. “I think one of the main is that it’s just the way all-ages spaces for all music and art - live music particularly - are rare in our city, and it’s a completely different environment to experience music in than an expensive bar or place where the cover might be $20 versus a $5 donation,” she said. Sarah Slater, co-founder and music director of Titwrench Collective, said venues offer a way to put on the festival without much money and make it accessible to more people that it would be if we were at, say, an AEG-owned venue. Future Islands, Dan Deacon, Crystal Castles, Matt & Kim, Thee Oh Sees and Lightning Bolt - though they don’t call Denver home - played early shows at Rhino and Glob. You might see them across town at the Hi-Dive, or you might see them a few years down the road, when the Ogden Theatre is just one stop on a national tour. You don’t get permission to workshop something on stage when people are paying.”Īnd while not everyone makes it far beyond those beginnings, many do. It’s allowed to be messy, it’s allowed to be sloppy. Or as Kelly Maxwell, vocalist for local band Gora Gora Orkestar put it: “It’s almost like an incubator. “The important thing to realize with all-ages DIY spaces is they facilitate local music scenes … it gives people a chance to develop as scene members.” said Michael Seman, the recently appointed Director of Creative Industries Research and Policy at CU Denver, himself a musician who has played many DIY venues. Playing shows is the best way for a new band to grow and earn fans, and it’s much harder to get booked at a “legit” venue if a band hasn’t had a chance to grow that audience - especially for bands that are bending rules and genres. If Rhino and Glob aren’t hosting shows, that means new and experimental acts - both local and touring - are losing a place to play. They often barely have the funds for one of those things.Īnd it’s not just those five people who lose an important space. Young artists generally don’t have the funds for both an apartment and studio space. So if the five artists evicted from Rhino and Glob are out of a place to live, that means they’re also out of a place to create. Now, as artists rush to Rhino and Glob’s defense, the people in power are trying to figure out what to do. Denver Fire Department spokeswoman Melissa Taylor has said that the city is already looking into similar spaces for safety issues, and people in Denver’s music community are hearing of similar crackdowns from friends in other cities. Five people were evicted on a freezing night because the building was not permitted as a residential space, which made its lack of smoke detectors and sprinklers an urgent issue for inspectors.Ĭurrent and former leaseholders and tenants at Rhino and Glob maintain that the fire department has been aware of their set up for all 11 years of their existence. 8, Denver took its own hit when the fire department performed a surprise inspection at Rhinoceropolis and Glob, sister DIY spots in an industrial space at 35 Brighton Boulevard. 5 from Baltimore, where housing and fire officials condemned the Bell Foundry, citing “numerous safety violations as well as deplorable conditions.” The space was a home, studio and performance venue. Friends and family were lost in horrific circumstances, and while those wounds were still fresh, authorities around the country started shutting down DIY art spaces. 2 fire at Oakland’s Ghost Ship, it reverberated throughout every city where musicians fight to carve out spaces for themselves. In Denver and beyond, arts communities and authorities alike have a major problem: How will they sustain arts communities in safe and affordable spaces? Experimental musician Cecilia McKinnon, aka Star Canyon, plays at Glob.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |