Crain's Cleveland Business  |  March 31, 2016

SPACES gallery to move to former Van Rooy Coffee Building

SPACES gallery finally has a new space to call its own.

The nonprofit art gallery, which describes itself as "a resource and public forum for artists who explore and experiment," on Thursday, March 31, announced it is buying the first floor of the former Van Rooy Coffee Building, at 2900 Detroit Ave. in the increasingly popular Hingetown section of Ohio City.

SPACES expects to complete the move by January. It's currently in a building at 2220 Superior Viaduct in Cleveland that it sold in 2013 for $418,000. SPACES has been leasing space in the Superior Viaduct building since the sale. It moved to the Superior Viaduct building in 1990.

So far, SPACES said, it has raised $1.4 million of a $3.5 million capital campaign, which includes $2.5 million toward the cost of the new space and the move. SPACES also plans to establish its first endowment.

The move to the Van Rooy building owned by major arts backers Fred and Laura Bidwell "will expand on our success in supporting the creation and appreciation of experimental art," SPACES said in its announcement. (The new SPACES site is near the Transformer Station, 1460 W. 29th St., a gallery the Bidwells helped launch in 2013.)

Plans at the new SPACES include a dedicated classroom space for "community engagement initiatives," artist workshop and studio areas, two galleries, a screening room and rooftop access with views of Lake Erie.

Cleveland.com, which first reported the move, says the Bidwells "are renovating the top floor of the three-story, Romanesque-Revival Van Rooy building, once a factory and later a coffee warehouse. They plan to rent the middle of the two floors."

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