Coming Clean About The Soap Factory

Last Wednesday, a friend who knew I'm a fan of the Twin Cities art community contacted me.  She asked if I knew what was going on at The Soap Factory, the self described "laboratory for artistic experimentation and innovation."  The Soap Factory was founded 26 years ago as a showcase for developing visual art; an incubator for emerging and mid-career artists.  In the past they supplied artist workspaces, and today they support artists by providing installation space, funding, and most importantly, the opportunity to display pieces in a non-traditional exhibition space, giving the artist the experience of working with a gallery, including staff, design, publication and promotion.  An institution like The Soap Factory is an important piece to any thriving, vibrant art community, and the Twin Cities is extremely fortunate to have it.

Early last week, in the wake of the closing of their incredibly popular Halloween project, The Haunted Basement, a Soap Factory senior staff member was let go, followed the next day by two board members resigning their position.  Wednesday, a few other developments brought out the red flags.  It was revealed there was no schedule in place for 2016, vendors were told there wouldn't be anything in 2016 due to construction, construction people close to The Soap Factory were not aware of, and the rest of the employees had been informed they were being moved to 'hourly as needed.'  Fans were scratching their heads about what exactly was going on, as was I.

This was a shock!  At the end of 2014, the Soap Factory was coming off a successful 25th Anniversary season, with a near sold out Haunted Basement (14,000 tickets sold at $20 a pop!!!), and successful shows highlighting some great artists.  The feeling was they'd set themselves up for another 25 years of success in the resurrected Riverside/Marcy Holmes neighborhood.

With many people starting to ask questions, The Soap Factory, on Friday, was quoted in an MPR story, admitting they were closing their doors.  They elaborated in longer pieces, which ran in Monday's Star Tribune and online at City Pages, that The Soap Factory had come up against financial problems, due to a rescinding of a grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, and recent renovations costing more than anticipated.  They're going to host their "Artists on the Verge" show next Spring, but that's it.  The board announced they'll have a pubic conversation about The Soap Factory's future on December 1st, at 6 PM in their gallery.

To be fair, suspending activity, or going dark for a time, is a relatively common thing for artists groups.  Funding is usually the main reason, but the better institutions always find a way to come back.  What concerns me, and many others about this break, is the 800 pound gorilla in the middle of the gallery; their location.  I've watched the last 10 years as unwanted warehouse space snuggled between downtown Minneapolis and the main campus of the University of Minnesota has been bought up, torn down and in it's place, high end luxury town homes, condos and apartments have risen up.  The demand for any land to develop in Riverside is on steroids.  A few years back, The Soap Factory used to air movies projected on vacant buildings, with spectators crowded into the empty dirt lots to watch.  Now, all of that is gone, and the Soap Factory remains as one of the few un-updated lots west of the Stone Arch Bridge.  The first thing that crossed my mind, as well as many others, was, "are they purposely shuttering the place so someone can scoop up the lot and build another high end residence?"

There has been some mismanagement from the board.

When Director Ben Heywood announced he was leaving in June, the board was lax in their information distribution.  They knew there were stipulations on the grant about having limited disruption in their leadership to maintain the funding, but the board seemed to have taken a blasé attitude, putting an interim title on Heywood's replacement and seeming to not start an aggressive search for a permanent replacement quickly, a position which many would've been interested in.

Two years ago, I trained as a volunteer with the Soap Factory.  I learned a lot about the place, including about the supposed ghost in the basement.  The place was a mess, in need of meaningful renovations, but the mentality of the staff seemed to be 'one step at a time.'  They knew they needed upgrades, but they never over extended themselves on construction projects.  The volunteer coordinator made the point of saying, "if we start too many projects at once, the costs will likely increase, and so we're careful to not over extend ourselves."

If this was their mentality two years ago, and today they're into cost overruns with repairs, what happened?  It's bad oversight to not see an avoidable problem, like rising renovation costs, coming down the line.

It also sounds like they'd gotten themselves into contracts with vendors which prohibited The Soap Factory from maximizing their potential with one time events.  Renting out a space like The Soap Factory can be quite lucrative, but having to turn away potential business seems to have really hurt their bottom line.

(An addition for Wednesday the 11th - I received an e-mail from The Soap Factory last night, in which they tout their schedule from 2015, admit they are going on hiatus for early 2016, but insist The Soap Factory is not going away.  They don't offer any other details, outside of asking for people to attend the December 1st meeting and to think of The Soap Factory for Give to the Max Day.  The fact they went to MPR on Friday, and five days later are just NOW sending out the e-mail to supporters and media is another example of horrible information distribution and bad management.  I'll also add, the feeble plea for a Give to the Max donation at the e-mail's end is misplaced and misguided.)

A few years back, I dealt with Unite Edina 273, a group led by a land developer in Edina, who wanted to peel off a section of the Hopkins School District in Edina, and place it within the Edina School District, thinking the school district's desirability would add to the profit margins of the properties.  When Hopkins schools turned them away, they tried to run phantom candidates for the Hopkins School Board in an attempt to control the district from within.  They failed.

I have some very real concerns The Soap Factory is being run out of existence so that a land developer can get their hands on the valuable property where their historic building rests.  Since they are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we deserve transparency, clarification and answers as tax payers.  We need to hear from the board that they're committed, with a goal to keep The Soap Factory open and operational.

I encourage everyone to go to The Soap Factory on December 1st, at 6 PM.  Demand that The Soap Factory lives.  It's so important to have stepping stones for emerging local artists.  We don't want our best and brightest new stars having to go to Chicago, New York or LA to have to display their pieces.

If art is supposed to make us feel, then losing The Soap Factory would be turning off one of our emotions.  We need more Soap Factory's, not less.