Mission Statement
Vine Arts Center is a non-profit, member-run organization supporting emerging and established artists, partnering with the community, and providing space and support for visiting shows and events.
ABOUT THE VINE ARTS CENTER
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The Vine Arts Center began with an idea. A group of artists who rented studio space in the Ivy Building began holding meetings in 2007 with the goal of opening a gallery. Sharing their experiences and collective desires to form a volunteer membership organization and build a nonprofit gallery in the Ivy Building they shared their experience and desires regarding building a gallery. The groups’ planning and work continued through 2008 and involved construction as well as setting up the nonprofit organization. Exhibits in the gallery space began in 2009 with outside artists and a member show. This also was the beginning of the Vine Arts Center Holiday Sale, a mainstay tradition until 2018.
Fast forward to early 2020 – the gallery was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Then, in the days and nights after May 25th, 2020, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of 4 Minneapolis police officers, civil unrest erupted along the Lake Street corridor. On May 29th, embers from the fire of the Hexagon Bar across the street from Ivy Building sparked a fire on the roof of the building which engulfed several studios. The building's sprinkler system caused extensive damage to the gallery’s wood floors, necessitating total replacement of two layers of flooring, as well as replacement of many of the walls in the gallery and the rest of the building.
As we are winding down 2021, the final reconstruction continues. We hope to open for web- based events in fall 2021 with our newly-updated and revamped website. As the repairs to the gallery are finished and the concern about Covid-19 abates, we will celebrate with a grand reopening and resume with exhibits and programming.
