We thought about starting this off with a rousing rendition of "To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn) There Is a Season," but it's usually best if we don't sing. So we'll try prose instead.

It has been an incredible two years on North Grand: we've held many events that have brought thousands of people together to experience grassroots civics and culture at The Commonspace...and that's not even including the countless meetings, book groups, Meetups and other informal gatherings that it's been our pleasure to host. We've been lucky to get connected to some amazing groups doing amazing work for our city and our community, and to spend time getting to know many of you.

As September comes to a close, we find that another season is ending, too, and this one is bittersweet: The Commonspace will close the doors at its current location in Grand Center at the end of September. It has been our privilege to offer two years of our time and energy, on a completely volunteer basis, as our gift to St. Louis. However, the character flaw known as "lack of moderation" has meant that we've been single-mindedly focused on this project and have put some important personal priorities on indefinite hold during that time; now we're feeling the need to return some of them to the top of the life list.

The Commonspace, as an outlet and promoter of grassroots civics and culture in St. Louis, will not cease to exist: we plan to return to regular publication of our web magazine (remember that little thing? We miss it, too) and hope that our "real world" events and projects will find a reincarnation in the future, too.

We have more events still planned for the remainder of September, and of course hope that you will be able to attend one or more. We will continue to hold our regular open hours on Tuesdays (6-10 p.m.), Thursdays (6-10 p.m.), Saturdays (11 a.m.-4 p.m.) and Sundays (noon-4 p.m.) until the end of September, so stop by and see us.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the hard-working third member of our board, Jason McClelland, and to everyone who heads up a project that found its home at The Commonspace.

And finally, please accept our sincere thanks, from the bottom of our little St. Louis-lovin' hearts, for all the support you have given us: your money, your time and your welcome words of encouragement. This has been an amazing experience for us, made more so by all of you.

We will be in touch with more information about future projects of The Commonspace; 'til then, we encourage you to get out and do something bold for your community!

Viva St. Louis!
Amanda Doyle & Brian Marston
For The Commonspace

Posted under The Commonspace by Brian Marston on Thu., Sep 23, 2004 at 1:58 AM