Help Make Carni Closet a Better Community Resource

HELP MAKE CARNI CLOSET A BETTER COMMUNITY RESOURCE

Dear friends,

I’m writing you about Carni Closet, the little pet name I give to my studio space at EXIT in Kreuzberg. As you probably all know, carni closet has served as a location for many photo shoots, video shoots, meetings, performance salons and fashion shows. It’s also a “costume trading library” set up as a resource for other performers in Berlin with coutnless costumes, wigs, hats, masks, props and tools available to other “carnis”–people like you and me who dont have money but need new props and costumes all the time.http://exitberlin.com/carni-closet

For a long time I have dreamed of setting up the space even more formally so that even more people have access to it, but up until now I have pretty much run it on an informal ad-hoc basis and I just pay for the space through my performance work.

Recently, however, costs at the studio have become prohibitively expensive and I have realized that I need to get more serious about keeping the space and attempt to apply for some kind of art grant to allow it to continue to be a non-commercial costume trading space. I dont want to just rent it out or rent out the costumes. In theory I would also like it to be a place that people can conduct workshops—although up until now Ive been out of town too much to run that on a regular basis and I think that would be better taken care of by others.

At this point, I dont even know if I’ll even be eligible for grants, but I’m wondering if there are three or four people out there that would be interested in signing on with me to make it an official non-profit space (I think I need five total minimum) so that I can at least begin to apply. I am also wondering if there are people who, if we were to get money, would like to use the space for teaching workshops (in sewing, in music production, in mask making, whatever … ). My dream would be especially to connect our artist community with some of the local youth who dont yet think of themselves as artists but dream of it.

Please be in touch with me if you are interested and lets get the creative juices going …

Kindly,

Kate