News
Last Updated: Thursday, April 8, 2010 | 8:12 PM ET
CBC News
An old seafood warehouse is being turned into a temporary arts space in Calgary's East Village for local theatre, music and visual art groups.
The building, at 630 Seventh Avenue S.E., is slated to be demolished but Calgary Arts Development convinced the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation to try opening it up to artists until the warehouse is knocked down.
"We felt it was a really unique way to draw people into the neighbourhood and see how the area is changing," said Chris Ollenberger, President and CEO of the CMLC. "Our vision of East Village includes the arts community as a future anchor tenant, so we think of this as a preview of sorts."
"Still smells a bit fishy actually," said Terry Rock, president and CEO of Calgary Arts Development Authority on Thursday.
But the space is a perfect, inexpensive place for artists to rehearse and showcase their work, he said.
"These kinds of spaces in Calgary are a bit quite rare actually. Because a lot of more older cities in Canada has space like this that becomes available all the time and it is traditionally the kind of thing that artists thrive in," said Rock.