History

CELLspace was founded in 1996 when a group of artists and educators leased a warehouse on Bryant Street to develop a communal workspace for collaborative and community based arts. Over the past three years we have significantly expanded our youth services to now offer after school arts classes, tutoring, counseling, off-site workshops, leadership opportunities, and vocational training. Since our inception, we have provided affordable space for artists to develop their artistic mediums. This includes: puppetry, circus arts, metalsmithing, fine arts, performing arts, craft making, music recording, and more.

The past three years have been monumental for CELLspace because we have achieved many of our long-term goals. We have doubled our operating budget, developed a paid staff-base, expanded our after-school program to serve over 200 “at-risk” youth per year, created an adult arts education program with a 90% enrollment rate, successfully managed a community flea and farmers market, provided off-site urban arts workshops to over 500 youth per year, and completed a three year capital campaign to upgrade our facility – a city mandated renovation project needed to obtain our Place of Entertainment permit, making us a legal venue for nighttime entertainment.