Building Description
Our building used to be the Kunzelmann-Esser Furniture Company until the turn of the century. Afterwards, the building took on a new life as Mitchell Street Menswear until 2020.
Mitchell Street Arts was seeded in 2021 by a series of conversations with local residents, artists, and community leaders. We asked: what does the Southside need to have a thriving arts and culture scene? Those conversations became the backbone of our programming and mission.
MiSA was created by a team of 20-30 volunteers who dedicated their time and expertise to literally putting the walls up! This makes our space unique because it was literally BUILT by community.
Visitor Experience
Our home on Historic Mitchell Street serves as the base for our programming, and encompasses a performing arts venue and community makerspace.
Our central purpose is to make bridges: to utilize art as a vehicle for cross cultural connection. We do this by collaborating with community organizations and artist groups from around the city. Our stage hosts interactive theater troupes, spoken word poetry, open mic nights, community dialogues, and more. Programming is multi-lingual and takes place in English and Spanish.
In addition to hosting performing arts, our makerspace contains a wood shop, ceramics studio, photo darkroom, and more. It is a place for professional artists to collaborate, and a classroom for our community to learn new skills. Through an artist-in-residence program focused on public art, we provide free studio space and gallery time to local artists.
Our commons is inspired by a means of community based economic and social support practiced within a vast variety of cultures, regions, and time periods: The sharing of resources.
For many folks, especially members of historically marginalized communities, sharing money, food, living quarters, supplies, and more is how they gained access to the resources they needed to not only survive, but flourish. Through sharing resources, we are able to reduce costs and other barriers that served as hindrances to finding support for our work.
We Host A:
Public Arts Stage (theatre, slam-poetry, standup comedy, dance, jazz shows, and more)
Artist in Residence program (for both local and non-local artists)
Creative Makerspace (includes a wood shop, ceramics studio, photo darkroom, street art room, and more)
Gallery (promoting the work of local professional artists)
Event venue (host your own event here)
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We plan to implement a community art project for Doors Open visitors, as well as feature performances from local artists 🙂
Address
710 W Historic Mitchell St
Saturday Hours
10am - 5pm
Sunday Hours
Not Open
Photography
Photography allowed, Videography allowed, Tripod allowed
Handicapped Accessible
1st floor only
