Glow Hall needs your help staying open
Glow Hall is Downtown Kalamazoo’s haunt for music, art, and creative community. Glow Hall is an all-ages venue and creative space in downtown Kalamazoo, built for live music, film, art, and community gatherings. Rooted in a DIY ethos and shaped by local artists and educators, Glow Hall is a space for people of all ages to learn, share, and experience the arts together.
From the link:
“Hey everyone. It’s Christopher at Glow Hall.
I need your help keeping this thing alive.
Glow Hall brings together the things I’ve spent my life doing: music, film, art, teaching, and hospitality. I wanted to build somewhere people could come together around those things. Somewhere artists would be taken seriously and taken care of. Somewhere you could hear something unfamiliar, bring an idea, meet people, and feel welcome.
With a lot of help, we’ve made that place.
We’ve brought local musicians and touring artists together, hosted film screenings, dance parties, experimental performances, and community gatherings. We’ve helped people put on their own events and held benefits for others. We’ve done a tremendous amount with very little, and the people volunteering here have given so much of themselves to make it happen.
We haven’t launched a fundraising campaign for Glow Hall before. That was deliberate.
I wanted people to experience what we could do before we asked them to support it. I wanted you to have something real to judge us by. And I wanted to wait until we could make one campaign count, because constantly asking for money was never how I wanted this place to operate.
But I’ve reached the end of what I can carry on my own. We’re behind on rent, and we need help now.
We’re launching our one and only fundraising campaign, with two goals.
First, $15,000 to get caught up on rent and take care of essential operating needs, including a point-of-sale system and basic things like replacing lightbulbs.
Second, $5,000 in recurring monthly support.
That would help us pay the bills and provide a small stipend for me and one other staff member. It would also make it possible to pay the people currently volunteering at shows from the door money.
We’re calling our monthly supporters Stewards of Glow Hall. It’s a way to share in caring for this place and give us some stability.
That support will sustain us as we keep pursuing larger investment in what comes next: a café and possibly a food truck, more private events, the School of Sound & Vision, and the people we need to help run and grow those programs. Those are the things we’re working toward to create dependable income and make Glow Hall useful throughout the week.
If you can give, please give what you can. If you can commit to a monthly amount, that makes a real difference in what we can plan for.
And I’m asking for something else, too.
If Glow Hall has meant something to you, record a short video and tell people. Tell us about a show, something you made here, someone you met, or why you want this place to stay. Share it with the campaign link and send it to us so we can share it too.
I can talk about why I believe in Glow Hall. I want people to hear what it means to you.
I want this place to be here for decades. We’ve put so much into getting it this far. Please help us keep it going.
Thank you. We love you very much!
♥️🔥”