Photo Courtesy Ben Becker, Flickr CC
As of Thursday, Jan 28 all members and resident artists at Studio G, located in The Shops of Grand Avenue, have been given 30 days notice to move out entirely. This is so that the new owners of the mall can renovate the space for the purpose of advertising its availability for retail occupancy.
This will eliminate the working, performing and storage space of all the artists and arts organizations that currently reside in the space as of Feb. 25. This includes MPT, Stuart Johnson, Jeff Holub, Quasimondo Theatre, Max Samson, Michael Pettit and Emillio DeTorre. Some have already begun dismantling and moving out equipment into separate storage spaces. Additionally, Quasimondo has been making a new play to run in Studio G in March and is now without a theatre.
“Like the announcement, a year ago, that the Milwaukee Fortress is moving out its tenants and converting the space into high-end residential housing, this is another even more serious hurtful loss of creative space for independent and community-based arts in Milwaukee,” said Michael Pettit, an artist who will be losing his space in 30 days. “I feel there needs to be a response to that. I feel like people should care about that, and that if we let people know, my hope is that the community will respond.”
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Pettit hopes the loss of Studio G can be a wake-up call that inspires people to realize that these corporate buy outs don’t need to be the future of Milwaukee. He hopes to find people who will care and that can help to reorganize and rebuild the future of the Arts in Milwaukee.
