After nearly 30 years of serving as a launching pad for aspiring artists, Out North closed its doors Monday after the board of directors laid off four full-time and two part-time employees.
"The decision was made last week, the board met with a variety of non-profit professionals to do an assessment of where we were at," said Board of Directors President Chrissy Bell. "The decision was made to suspend operations temporarily at Out North."
Chicago-based ArtPlace America awarded Out North a $250,000 grant lasting from June 2012 to May 2013.
"ArtPlace America requires regular reports to be submitted, no budgetary concerns were highlighted in the report submitted in December 2012," said spokesperson George Abbott in an e-mail to Channel 2 News. "The grant was made to support an artist residency project, as per the original application."
"While we were able to use that grant to further operations and do some staffing hiring and that sort of thing, it was only a one year grant," said Bell. "Now that we've come to the end of that, we don't have future sustainability in place."
The Board of Directors met Monday to discuss the possibility of reopening Out North in the future, and how it will accommodate independent users of the gallery, located off Bragaw Street.
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