Exciting Building News
Hello Friends, Family, and Fans of Spontaneous Celebrations!
Let's Build Our Building Better! Capital Campaign Match Challenge$$$
We need your help for much needed renovations to our Community Arts Center! Thanks to grants from Mass Cultural Council (MCC) and the city's Dept of Neighborhood Development PNP fund the first $108,000 will be matched dollar for dollar! These are key to the campaigns success as we only get the funds we match. So please give what you can whether it be $5 or $50000 and share far and wide with folks who have been to Spontaneous or enjoyed the Wake Up The Earth (WUTE) Festivals and Jamaica Pond Lantern Parades (JPLP) we produce. Facebook pays all the processing fees for you, so 100% of your donation goes directly to Spontaneous :)
We could not survive without generous community support so thank you to all who have given in the past, present, and future!
You can donate via our:
Website: SpontaneousCelebrations.org
Facebook Page: Spontaneous Celebrations
Or good old snail mail: 45 Danforth St, Jamaica Plain, 02130
We have been at our home on Danforth St for 25 years hosting and producing a diverse array of events and classes for our community. Weddings, memorials, birthdays, grad parties, rehearsals, bah mitzvah, quinceaneras, meetings, group art projects, shows, etc. have put a lot of love in our building and wear on the floors in this 185 year old building!
So here is the upgrade plan.
Step 1 Demolish chimney that is not in use to free up space in the kitchen, done! We are expanding and modernizing our kitchen to be commercial grade. We feel like in a home the kitchen is the heart. We also see by upgrading we can increase sustainability through hosting community dinners, renting out to local small caterers, food artisans, etc.
Step 2 Replace the stage, bar, floor, and improve the lighting, sound, and power outlet access. The stage and floor were suffering structural problems so we decided to redo the bar as well while we were tearing things up. The new floor is finished! We will be widening the stair on the egress side and framing the opposite side of the stage for wheelchair lifts. The finished product will be the same as before just shiny new, stable, and built to last for the next generations! We will also have storage drawers under stage for our chairs to make event set up/break down easier.
Step 3 Second egress to our basement. We have long wanted access to our basement from back of the building all the way up to our back stage area. Currently it is only from the front sidewalk of the building.
The total cost of these improvements is estimated at $240,000! Tis a bit mind blowing given the buildings origin story that you can read here. There are also revenue losses to consider as we have been shut down since March 13 and had to cancel WUTE and JPLP this year. The fact that we operate with zero debt has allowed us to weather this storm thus far. We also received PPP funds for our 1 1/2 full time staff, a few other small emergency arts grants, and are applying to MCC,s Cultural Organization Economic Recovery Program, as this is penned, to get our foot in the door for funds available due to the shutdown.
The current project process started 5 years ago with a mostly volunteer building committee that secured a feasibility study grant from MCC. That grant covered the costs of the architect and engineer for this project outside of the budget mentioned above and put us in position to go for the construction grants! We started construction in August and have put up temp walls around such so we can host some small classes and meetings within the current Phase 3 protocols moving forward.
Here is to hoping we can Wake Up The Earth together in the spring and host a grand reopening of our community arts center for all!
