Main Street Space:

A.P.E’s main public space, with large storefront windows, is approximately 2,000 square feet.   The space is used for visual arts, performance, readings, music, projects  and community special events.  The space is equipped with 50 chairs, a flexible lighting grid 14 ft ceilings, two (wheel-chair accessible) bathrooms, and an abundance of natural light.  To submit a proposal for an event at A.P.E., please see our Submission Guidelines.

Second Floor:

A.P.E.'s offices are located on the second floor.  In addition, A.P.E. is in the process of creating a library with a conference/reading room on the second floor of the building, above street level, based loosely on a model described by Richard Brautigan in his classic work of fiction from 1966, The Abortion, when he wrote,

        "We register all the books we receive here in our Library Contents Ledger. It is a record of all the books we get day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. They all go into the ledger.
        We don't use the Dewey Decimal classification or any index system to keep track of the books. We record their entrance into the library in the Library Contents Ledger and then we give the book back to its author who is free to place it anywhere he wants in the library, on whatever shelf catches his fancy.
        It doesn't make any difference where a book is placed because nobody ever checks them out and nobody ever comes here to read them. This is not that kind of library. This is another kind of library."

A.P.E.'s Library has recently been given a remarkable body of work, described in detail in Cellblock Visions: Prison Art in America, by Phyllis Kornfeld. Cellblock Visions has a foreword by Roger Cardinal, and was published by Princeton University Press in March, 1997.

The Cell Block Visions Collection includes drawings, paintings, and objects made within the last twenty years by men and women inmates of jails and penitentiaries in six states. Included are "mainstream" art forms such as handkerchief art and decorated envelopes. Also featured are prison folk arts such as soap carvings, cigarette wrapper purses, toothpick clocks, and toilet paper sculpture. Paintings and drawings by self-taught artists in the collection have been illustrated in a variety of publications and shown in prominent galleries.

These artists tell the truth, without self-consciousness, unfettered by concepts and theory. This pure expression of individual personality has produced a wide variety of styles and imagery, and at the same time, the commonalities of their imprisonment color every piece.

The "Library"  also houses an extensive collection of Mail Art from around the world, collected by HAMMER during the nineteen sixties and early seventies.

Top (3rd.) Floor:

A.P.E. has renovated the top floor of the building to work as a new space for 'The After School', a creative resource learning center directed by Anne Woodhull. Programs are scheduled to begin in the Fall of 2009. Connected to the After School is a large open studio space for special projects and workshops, and the roof above supports a recently installed 4.5 KW photovoltaic array.

Mezzanine Level:

The floor below street level is currently A.P.E.'s office which will move to the second floor as part of the "Library" in the Fall of 2009. This will open up space to perhaps create a collaborative office environment with several individual work stations sharing administrative and technical services.  For more information and availability, contact A.P.E.

Garage Level:

The ground floor houses a garage, a shop, and the buildings mechanical systems.

AVAILABILITY:
The Main Street Space is open to the public: Monday to Saturday, 10-5 pm with longer weekend hours.
During Exhibitions & Performances: See Individual Events
Between Exhibitions & Events: Any time by arrangement

PLEASE NOTE: At this time A.P.E. does not rent space for private functions or parties.
Office space may be available in the near future.