Photos: Inside the Opening Of The New West Village Rehearsal Co-Op

On Tuesday, January 24 HERE, IndieSpace, New Ohio and Rattlestick cut the ribbon for, and welcomed the public into, their 99-year rehearsal space, the West Village Rehearsal Co-Op located at 60-74 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 10014. The founding organizations were joined by speakers from the Community Board, Aurora Capital Associates, William Gottlieb Real Estate, and City Council.

The West Village Rehearsal Co-Op will be home to a diverse membership of theater artists and companies, and will leave a lasting imprint on the neighborhood's arts scene. With their 99-year lease, West Village Rehearsal Co-op ensures that the location is secured for cultural use for the next generation and beyond.

The fully ADA-compliant studio is 1,500 square feet with a kitchen and an area to rehearse. The co-op will play a vital role in reviving the New York theater community by providing a new resource for affordable and high-quality rental space after the pandemic forced the closure of many rehearsal studios, leaving a shortage of spaces for artists to do their work. Not only will the new space provide necessary support to artists in the West Village but it will also create a blueprint for the development of similar studios throughout the city.

For six months each year, the space will be available exclusively to artists working with the three CB2-based producing institutions. For the other six months, the space will be available at a subsidized rate of no more than $10 per hour for IndieSpace artists. For resident companies like The Grove (a collective of Black playwrights and artists) and other Black and Indigenous companies, IndieSpace will provide the studio for free. This co-op model will allow the studio to serve not only local theater companies, but to also expand to other individual artists and small organizations in the West Village and surrounding neighborhoods.

Photo Credit: Jody Christopherson