Church Street School for Music and Art (CSS), the only not-for-profit community music and arts school in Lower Manhattan, relocated to its new home at 41 White Street (the former Flea theater) at the end of January, ending a twenty year run on Warren Street. According to the Commercial Observer, CSS was facing an untenable rent at its former location. The White Street home comes with two fully built-out performance spaces, acoustical partitions that may be easily divided into classrooms, and several dressing rooms that will be converted into individual practice rooms. The new space will save the organization $200,000 a year.
Speaking to the The Tribeca Trib, Lisa Ecklund-Flores, founder of CSS, recalls finding the space that would help the school alleviate some of its financial burden. “When I saw the space and the way it was laid out,” she recalled, “I realized it really could house all of our programs without me having to go through an extensive renovation or a long period of time of trying to do a capital campaign.”
Like many other arts schools that have moved from a longtime home, CSS is thinking carefully about how to transition students to the new space. “We’re trying really hard to think of every nuance of that difficulty so that we can make that transition smooth for them,” Lisa said, speaking to the Tribeca Trib. “I hope that they’ll come to us on White Street, just like they came to us on Warren.”
You can read more about the move here.
Published: April 12, 2018