MILWAUKEE — When Rew Gordon’s Mitchell Street Arts Collaborative opens in 2023, it will be the third tenant in the 122-year-old Kunzelmann-Esser Furniture Co. Building.
“Picture these [front window display cases] being living room spreads, bedroom spreads, we’re going to renovate them into being artist galleries, so picture movable walls on the inside that will just be rotating exhibits,” Gordon explained.
They gave Spectrum News a tour of the location; Gordon is busy working with contractors and architects to finish the grunt work of transforming the former home of the more recent Mitchell Street Menswear into something so many people can use.
“Anything from multilingual stand up comedy and slam poetry, to small jazz shows to silent raves,” Gordon said. “Other events also, as we grow and kind of organically build, we might host things like sip and paint, or host events for a lot of our members for the community at large.”
In addition to the main event floor, it’ll have a place to do wood shop work, ceramics, street art, other art studios, and even a cafe.
Those are all things Gordon said they heard when asking the community what it wanted to see in the space.
“It was really trying to mix a model of abundance and efficiency to see what would be the best fit for this space,” Gordon said.
It’s the first major project Gordon has embarked on, and one that they didn’t really know all of the best ways to move forward with.
That’s why in April, they signed up for the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce’s new entrepreneur bootcamp.
“There’s been so much about accounting principles, hiring practices, about legal structures that has really just been invaluable,” Gordon said.
Jason Rae, the President and CEO of the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, said they were providing a lot of one-on-one assistance, but thought there could be some benefits if there was a community of support the business owners could have around them.
“We know being an entrepreneur is difficult, and having a network of individuals who are going through that experience together who can shape relationships, who can build partnerships, who can bounce ideas off of one another, we really wanted to create that,” Rae said.
One reason the Chamber created the program, Rae said, is because 46% of LGBTQ workers are not ‘out’ at work. It’s a big obstacle many of them face when trying to start their own business as well.
The program has been successful. Rae said 20 people signed up for the bootcamp this year, which cost $100 for the full eight weeks thanks to a sponsorship from Harley-Davidson.
“I really hope this is going to be an ongoing program that empowers LGBTQ entrepreneurs to start and grow their own business,” Rae said.
And while Gordon’s project is a nonprofit, they said they’ve learned a lot — which they hope will make the Mitchell Street Arts Collaborative a success.
