Comments (0) Best Community Art Center - 2006

CELLspace

A sprawling 10,000 square feet of pristine warehouse, CELLspace is the kind of place that makes you marvel at art's democratic possibilities. The "CELL" part stands for the unduly techy-sounding Collectively Explorative Learning Labs, but the space is an arts and education mecca that reaches people through a variety of mediums: arts and crafts, drawing, painting, theater, performance, dance, and some seriously creative activism. Low rental fees, novel seminars, and dirt-cheap events that cater to the city's many tastes and persuasions are just part of the appeal. Marionette-making workshops, bhangra dance nights, gypsy dinner circuses, free tango classes, and hip hop education summits — think of it as an alchemist's atelier, where raw ideas are transmuted into an eclectic, experimental stew of amusement. It's a change-making place for the masses, and despite (or perhaps because of) its "fuck the system" message, CELLspace is always up to cool shit.