Please forward or repost

A note from TOPLAB: As most of you know, the Brecht Forum has been our sister organization and fiscal sponsor since the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory was founded in 1990. TOPLAB is the oldest organization in the United States offering Theater of the Oppressed (TO) facilitation training, having presented many thousands of hours of TO workshops in New York, throughout the US and in numerous countries all over the world, including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Cuba, France, Guatemala, Iran, Japan, Mexico and elsewhere. Our success and longevity would not have been possible without the support of the Brecht Forum. But the caprice and avarice of real estate have caught up with the Brecht Forum and it is being forced to relocate from its current home in the West Village. Please read the appeal appended below, and if you have any ideas kindly get in touch with the BF's search committee at space@brechtforum.org. As the global movement to rid society of capitalism is on the upsurge, the Brecht Forum and TOPLAB play a role in its momentum in New York City, and if there is ever a time to act in solidarity with the BF that time is now. –TOPLAB

Dear Brecht Community,

As many of you know, we have been looking for a new home for the Brecht Forum for a number of months, as our current home on West Street has become too expensive.
Our Space Committee is having difficulty finding a new space that we are excited about and are looking to you, our community, for assistance.

Our dream space would be a large space where we could collaborate with other organizations to establish a movement center to help fill the rapidly growing need for a wide variety of movement-building resources. Working together with others could help us reduce our costs as larger spaces are generally less expensive per square foot. And, this would also allow us to share infrastructure, meeting rooms and event space and, generally, make more efficient use of scarce resources.

As this may be difficult to achieve in the short-term, we are exploring temporary or transitional solutions using (renting/borrowing) multiple spaces or “time-sharing” a large space with other
like-minded groups.
All spaces must all be wheel chair accessible, close to a convenient train, and open to us charging money. A breakdown of our space needs are as follow:

++ Regular Event / Workshop Space (600 to 1000sf for at least 40 people)

* An event/workshop space that Brecht can use some nights and weekends for forums, film screenings and popular education workshops. (25 to 40 people). These are flexible, and average 2 to 3 nights per week with typically one monthly weekend workshop. Shaped for visibility, with
space for chair and equipment storage.

++ Large Event Spaces (900+sf for 40 to 100 people)

* A large event space that the Brecht can use 2 to 3 times a month. Accessibility most important. If available, this space would ideally also be used for our regular sized events.

++ Meeting / Classroom Spaces (300 to 400sf for up to 25 people)

* Meeting / conference / class rooms that Brecht can use some nights for classes and study groups. (15 to 25 people). These need to be regularly scheduled (every Tues night 5:30 to 7:30 for 10 weeks, for example).

++ Office (300 – 400sf for up to 5 people)

* An office with space for 4-5 desks and storage. Could be that the office is the day time use of an evening event or classroom space.

Once again, if you have ideas for us please contact us at space@brechtforum.org

This is sent from:
Brecht Forum
451 West Street
New York, NY 10014
United States