Main fundraiser photo

Reawakening Louisville's MAMMOTH

STREAM LIVE, SATURDAY MARCH 28, 7pm-Midnight, A Live Stream Broadcast Variety Show Fundraiser:

Stream TV at : http://www.themammoth.org 

WANTED:
Artists seeking courageous, visionary, creative donors....  The MAMMOTH Community needs your support to secure and nurture our growth, and work with us to help reopen our home base/studios on Thirteenth Street.

Greetings MAMMOTH friends,

Here’s the long-story-short version of what’s going on…

The kind-hearted gentleman, Carl Boyd, who owner-financed the warehouse for the past eight years unexpectedly passed away in October of 2019. I’m currently working with his family to acquire the property deed and am in the process of acquiring a $200,000 bank loan.

In order to acquire the deed to the warehouse and get required repairs done immediately I am actually borrowing $160,000 from the Metro (Community Development) Bank, which means we need a $40,000 down-payment at the beginning of April... or else the MAMMOTH project will be terminated and the building relinquished back to Carl’s family.

I’m here asking friends, family, community stakeholders, lovers of art, music, culture and Community involvement to help me gather the $40K.

With full intentions of turning this building into a fully operational community resource in West Louisville as soon as possible, I need your help right now. With your support the Arts and Music creative community will reawaken The MAMMOTH as we finally make this big transition to being open once again in West Louisville.

Our hearts are warmed and humbled as the Community comes together to heal this building, to lift this project to the next level – as the MAMMOTH REAWAKENS… through the exploration of Art in Space, allowing us the time to push this authentic Louisville-based project into the forefront of the Art World..... and out, into the World-at-Large!

The MAMMOTH has been and will continue to be a resource for Louisville’s Creative Community and will be a destination from abroad. Getting this 155-year-old historic building operational will be a pivotal step for our community to have a massive DIY shared art-space that makes a mark on the national stage. We will play a significant part in cultural creation, playing our part to change our culture and the course of our challenged world.

Please (go to the link below and) throw in something you feel comfortable with putting in the hat. $40,000 is a LOT. However, whether it's a $1, $10, $20 or $500, it will add up and THANKS TO YOU we’ll soon have this open resource again!!!

Let's do this TOGETHER!!


Again and again, THANK YOU!!!

– Aron Conaway

Keeper and Operator
http://www.themammoth.org
http://www.themammothcollective.org

 

RECONSTRUCTION:
All 3 floors and the basement have been inspected /assessed by Structural Engineer, Ron Peron.  He has prepared a full 6-page four-floor plan for all repairs required to bring the building up to standard, allowing inspection structural soundness and code compliance.

REPAIRS and COSTS:
$41,000 Main Building’s Repair of (94) 12x12 Poplar Basement Columns            
$10,000  Front Facade Downspouts & Tuck Pointing
$17,000  Sprinkler Repairs                   
$6,000  Security System and Fire Monitoring
$20,000   Metal Roof on 5,000sf Side Building
$106,000   Payoff Balance / Purchase of the Building                              
 $200,000  TOTAL LOAN FROM METRO BANK


$200,000 Bank Loan is contingent on reaching the $40,000 FUNDRAISING GOAL by March 31, 2020

Raising $40,000 then borrowing $160,000 will support acquisition of the building deed and rehabilitation of the MAMMOTH by acquiring permits, purchasing materials, labor costs and the necessary tools to complete repairs. Once repairs have been made the facility will be able to return to development as a DIY, multi-use creative space.

Special thanks to:
Patrick Smith
Sheridan and Sam of Maze Studios
Jason Clark and his cool drone
Sameera Reza
And all the hard-working artists and musicians
who have helped us build over the years


MORE ABOUT THE MAMMOTH’s FUTURE
LOUISVILLE IS POISED TO BE A CENTER FOR COMPASSION, CREATIVITY AND HEALING IN THE COMMUNITY
THE MAMMOTH WILL CATALYZE THIS POTENTIAL BY:

·       PROMOTING LOUISVILLE WEST OF 9TH St.: As a global destination, the MAMMOTH will draw visitors to West Louisville from near and far

·       HONORING OUR HISTORY & ANCESTORS THROUGH HISTORIC PRESERVATION Built in 1865 by the Union Army during the Civil War, the building is a unique symbol of our collective past. We want to be a leader in helping heal the nation's deep scars of division and disempowerment by means of Art -making. >>>> a healing place for deep old wounds, placing Louisville in a leadership position in both the Art World and the social climate.

·       B.A.N.G! (Beautification Art and Neighborhood Growth) : Providing a social gathering place for West Louisville and people from a diversity of backgrounds a safe, positive environment, immersed in Art and extensive  creativity. A peaceful place for an inclusive community with access to gardens, free open    spaces, trees, paths, stages, activities.  International artists will facilitate artistic projects with the local community. Installations co-created with concerned citizens.

·       BUILDING A CREATIVE INDUSTRY: Artists are Future-Drivers. Makers from diverse backgrounds and fields will create together and will co-create projects with citizens to represent our history and guide our future. Participants will learn hands-on art-making in film production, digital art, public art installations, immersive experiences and more.

·       NETWORKING ECONOMY AND PARTNERSHIPS IN WEST LOUISVILLE : The MAMMOTH is a catalyst for forging major partnerships throughout the community, from local to global, family to organization. Working with area leaders we will contribute to organizing the community around us, offering cultural influence reducing negatives in society.

·       BEING AN AUTHENTIC LOUISVILLE ARTS CENTER - The MAMMOTH is a DIY Underground project, grown from Louisville’s roots: Known and recognized as an authentic local cultural space

·       LEADING A SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY - We are motivated by sustainable practice and learn from creative individuals and communities around the world. A stronghold for exemplary sustainable development and living, the MAMMOTH will strive to be a model for re-education for a healthy new society.

·       EMBRACING SPIRITUALITY: The MAMMOTH will bring spiritually rich, healing energy to the world. High caliber Artistic Creation, Community Involvement and Holistic Values. We will call for more Radical Wisdom, Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity. Original and Critical Thinking, Metamorphosis.

·      MAINTAINING THE CROWN JEWEL of the IMMERSIVE ART WORLD: With World-Class Experiential Art installations. This Cultural Center will present a segment of the Art world that finds little representation...  We artists, poets, filmmakers will manifest a deeply meaningful and life-changing living museum, exposing the viewer to ideas, philosophies and human potential. All somewhat like Meow Wolf (a fiscally successful Santa Fe Art Collective).


(r)EVOLUTION  - A Philosophy for Culture
A NEW KIND OF MONASTERY -
The Living Museum, The Center for Light Life and Culture, a Re-Educational Space

an Archetype to heighten and accelerate the trajectory of our City's psychosocial evolution.


    Here in 2020, we need to develop the MAMMOTH infrastructure to a point where we are fully operational and financially self-sufficient, setting us on our course. Upon completion of building repairs and re-opening the physical space in the warehouse, the existing Art Collective can begin to work together in a home base. As a 501 c(3) not-for-profit organization  we will be a community-involved group of artists and creatives present out in the Community and the Community will be present in the Creative Processes at the Building. In tandem, our B-Corporation, employee / shareholder-owned business, will manage all aspects of the physical realm of the property on 13th St.

    Our Creative Team will determine a path forward that leads The MAMMOTH to a VISION of the FUTURE that we believe in -- based on sustainable, mentally and physically healthy Community Co-operation. With a drive to pursue acts of Creation, Adaptation, Repair and Evolution (CARE) together we will speak to ‘the People’s’ ‘Natural Creative Spirit’. Merging space, resources and experience with passion for a beautiful, healthy future, this space will be built as a place to work, play, create, think, and communicate together.... inevitably spilling out into the World around us.

   Art exhibitions, music performances, multimedia installations, and community interaction strengthen and unify a city. Having already been at the forefront of cultural production in Louisville for 20 years we‘re experienced, fully poised and ready to put this ENORMOUS collective creative potential to work for our community

From  Our Friend, Gregory Chaney
On our City's near West Side, just beyond the infamous 9th St Divide, one block south of Broadway at 13th, behind the oldest Black Catholic Church in KY, St. Augustine, sits a massive Brick & Limestone Warehouse

That building was constructed by the Union Army in 1865 to house medical supplies to tend to the wounded and dying Soldiers of the Civil War.

1865 ... the year of Lee's Surrender to Grant at Appomattox

1865 ... the year of Abraham Lincoln's Assassination

1865 ... the year of the 13th Amendment's ratification

1865 ... the year Slavery was outlawed in our Nation

1865 ... the year the Civil War came to its bloody close

Yet, wounds of Racism remain open ... and 9th St divides us West & East along racial lines as dramatically as our River demarcated our Nation North & South on the philosophy of what it means to be a human being.

Best of all, much of the heavy lifting has already been done. The above described building known affectionately as The Mammoth in Louisville's deep Art, Music & Activism communities, has already been successfully operated as a Communal Collaborative Arts Facility (better name?) under the ownership of Community Artist/Activist Aron Conaway & a Partner from 2012 to 2015 ... when some structural repair issues (all relatively minor) required that The Mammoth be closed to the public until brought up to Code.

Now, on the cusp of the year 2020, The Mammoth is readying to rise to Her feet again to carry our City forward into a 2020 Vision... Louisville as the Nation's model of a fully human and sustainable community. Our community can return to the healing theme of that Civil War Medical Supply Warehouse and elevate it into a site where Poetry, Music, Film-making and Art in all its forms are utilized by the most diverse group of Artists imaginable to heal the soul-wounds to our individual and collective psyches resulting from Racism. The Mammoth will be a great fulcrum of change by which we leverage the Arts and Art & Activist communities to dismantle that 9th St Wall and from it fashion Bridges between West & East, North & South, Black & White, as well as platforms for Economic and Political Empowerment & Equity... stairways & ladders by which our community, together as a whole, rises in its ascent toward realizing its full potential. 

Aron Conaway is now in the process of acquiring sole possession of The Mammoth from his Partner and raising funds to finish restoration & repairs necessary to reopen The Mammoth to the community. This will allow he & supportive stakeholders creative control over The Mammoth's future. In the not so distant future Aron will relinquish a majority of ownership of the building to with other collective members through the  B-Corp model or through Opportunity Zone investments.  All to be determined in the near future. To this point the effort and ownership have been solely focused on acquiring and protecting the building from careless use or demolition. 

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Donations 

  • Haley Meland
    • $15 
    • 3 yrs
Donate

Organizer

Aron Conaway
Organizer
Louisville, KY

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