Talk about an art house.
The creative minds behind three Brooklyn arts organizations are coming together under one roof at 155 Freeman St., hoping to put Greenpoint on the map with their trifecta of screenings, workshops and literary pursuits.
“Having a shared space together means a cross-pollination of audiences,” said Ed Halter, director of the film and digital art studio Light Industry, which will be sharing the space with online magazine Triple Canopy and international classroom The Public School.
The three organizations will operate independently, using the building according to their needs once they open in September, but they intend to curate the space in ways that complement each other.
“We can always draw on each other’s expertise,” said Sarah Resnick, a committee member at The Public School.
The three previously collaborated in a space on Livingston Street in Downtown, where minimalist cinema and musical performances from the ’60s avant-garde were regular fare.
This new joint venture, simply billed as 155 Freeman (hey, they can’t be creative all the time), joins a selection of other new art spaces in Greenpoint, long an up-and-coming artists’ hub that has so far dodged the skyrocketing rents of neighboring Williamsburg. The film and fashion destination MOVES opened this spring on Franklin Street, around the corner from 155 Freeman, while Allan Nederpelt’s waterfront gallery has been garnering city-wide press all year.
Eric Shlapack, a writer and filmmaker, is the exact kind of neighborhood artist that 155 Freeman would showcase.
“That’d be something for me,” said Shlapack, adding that he always comes across artists in the film industry who need a place to display their work but don’t necessarily want to commute into Manhattan. “People need a place to screen.”
The building is under heavy renovation to accommodate multiple film screening venues, but fundraising efforts for the first year of programming are already well underway, with more than $34,000 pledged on the groups’ Kickstarter page, far surpassing their $20,000 goal.
155 Freeman (155 Freeman St. between Manhattan Avenue and Franklin Street, no phone), set to open in September.
