Red Eye’s New Home
Red Eye Theater is thrilled to be building a new performance space, which will serve as the organization's next long-term home! The space is located on unceded Dakota land in the Seward neighborhood of South Minneapolis. We have signed a long-term lease in the Focus Arts building at 2213 Snelling Avenue. Focus Arts is run by Seward Redesign, a nonprofit community development organization that has fully dedicated this building to local arts organizations.
Red Eye will build out our new ~3000 sq ft space into a flexible and fully accessible black box theater, inviting collaboration and artistic experimentation. We envision this space as a home for contemporary performance in the Twin Cities—a place for artists to exchange ideas, build networks of support, grow and deepen their practices over time, and share work with audiences.
Large room with concrete floor and ceiling, unfinished wall, blue paint, and construction equipment.
Person holds camera and Minneapolis skyline reflects over the glass, which reveals an unfinished room.
Mirror leans against blue cinderblock wall, reflecting a large and empty unfinished room.
Photos: Valerie Oliveiro
Be part of making it happen!
To build out Red Eye’s new home, we have embarked on a major capital campaign designed to raise $600,000 over the next year, including $145,000 in individual donations. That sounds like a lot of money, doesn’t it? But amazingly, we’re already over 50% of the way there! We couldn’t be more blown away and inspired by this momentum. Together, we can do this.
We are immensely grateful for the following lead supporters of this project, who have made so much possible:
The McKnight Foundation
Judy Meath and Xandra Coe
Dr. Tom Knabel and Kent Allin
We are also profoundly grateful to David Kelley and Miller Dunwiddie for their immeasurable in-kind support, and to the 250+ additional artists and community members who have made donations and/or pledged gifts in support of the space to date!
In 2021, the capital campaign is moving through three phases:
ELEVATE, ILLUMINATE, and GENERATE.
We invite you to get involved! Each phase will have its own goal, and we’re cooking up many fun ways to CELEBRATE your support and the milestones—all toward supporting working artists as they INCUBATE new work and share it out in the years to come. Every contribution makes a difference, whether big or small, monetary or otherwise.
Phase I: ELEVATE
Individual Donations Goal: $10,000
Achieved! Your generosity elevated the walls—THANK YOU!
Phase II: ILLUMINATE
In fall 2021, with the most essential structures now in place, we are gathering support for the basic furnishings that will be needed as we begin hosting rehearsals, performances, and other kinds of events in the new space. This includes things like audience seating; mirrors, tables, chairs, and clothing racks for the dressing room; upgraded lighting/sound equipment; and more.
Individual Donations Goal: $30,000
During this phase:
In thanks for gifts at any level
(All chairs have been claimed!)
The first 100 individuals to donate any amount in this phase of the campaign will have one of the chairs in the new space named after them (or after someone else of your choosing)!
In thanks for gifts of $1000+
(50 available)
You will receive a limited edition signed print of a drawing by Pramila Vasudevan, Twin Cities-based transdisciplinary artist, Artistic Director of Aniccha Arts, and member of Red Eye’s Artistic Advisory Committee. Pramila is creating an original piece just for Red Eye’s community, utilizing architectural drawings of the new space as a base.
Each of the three phases of this capital campaign will include an original artwork created by a different Red Eye affiliated artist. Make a gift during each phase to collect them all!
In thanks for gifts of $5000+
(5 available)
One of Red Eye’s seven Artistic Directors will generate a personalized curatorial package especially for you (or for someone of your choosing), featuring recommended performances, music, books, and other artistic deep dives tailored to your unique interests and taste. Each package will include several books and other physical objects, as well as an array of online resources and people or projects to seek out when traveling.
In thanks for gifts of $10,000+
(3 available)
Red Eye Co-Artistic Director Emily Gastineau and her collaborator Samantha Johns will tailor and present a new iteration of their piece, Movie Theater in Manhattan, Your Bed, Blue Toyota Corolla, Flying Over Greenland, Booth at Matt’s Bar, The Harbor, The Staircase, Street Market in Istanbul, Amsterdam Centraal Station, Kitchen Table, Boston, Wooden Bridge Between Two Subdivisions in Virginia, After the Parade, Cafe Near the Tower, St. Paul Sidewalk in the Snow, Morning, The Reservoir, Concrete Floor in Vienna, Hotel Bathroom, 26th St. & Stevens Ave., Train Window: A Performance in 21 Readings specifically for you and one guest of your choosing! This performance experience will take place online through Zoom.
How to give:
There are multiple ways to donate to Red Eye:
If you would like to discuss your pledge or gift with one of the Red Eye Artistic Directors, please contact Co-Artistic Rachel Jendrzejewski at rachel@redeyetheater.org, or feel free to send an email to all seven of us at staff@redeyetheater.org. We also can be reached by phone at (612) 870-7531.
1.
Give online through GiveMN.org
2.
Give online through the PayPal Giving Fund
3.
Mail a check to: Red Eye Collaboration, 2213 Snelling Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55404.
Some other ways to support Red Eye’s capital campaign:
Visit our shop on Bonfire, where you can purchase Red Eye t-shirts, sweatshirts, onesies, face masks, tote bags, hats, coffee cups, and more. During each phase of the campaign, we will add new items, so be sure to check back throughout the year to collect them all.
At this time, the most helpful thing that volunteers can do is spread the word about Red Eye and about this campaign. If you’d like to volunteer in support of the new space, make sure you’re on our email list and consider forwarding the space updates to folks in your community that might be interested; amplify the news and giving opportunities on social media; or reach out to people in your life and invite them to donate or even pool resources to make a bigger collective gift. Every like, share, retweet, repost, comment, email, and phone call makes a difference! Thank you!!
"A home space has always been essential for Red Eye. The ability to develop work in the space in which it will be performed was foundational to our creative process, and we were committed to extending that same gift to other artists. Over more than three decades our former space became a true creative home to many, and soon Red Eye will be able to make that magic happen once again."
— Steve Busa and Miriam Must
(Red Eye Co-founders)
“Red Eye is an essential refuge in the Minneapolis and national theater community: it is a place where artists can truly be free to create bold new work.”
— Lisa D’Amour
(Playwright, interdisciplinary artist, Red Eye commissioned artist, Pulitzer Prize finalist)
“Red Eye is meaningful as one of the last experimental performance incubators in Minneapolis. For all of my time in Minneapolis, Red Eye has invested in the work of my peers, artists I look up to, and now me and my collaborators. Red Eye having a space, when so much space is going or gone, is ME having a space, so many of us having a space.”
— Marcela Michelle
(Director, Red Eye commissioned artist, Artistic Director of 20% Theatre Company)