12/06/2022
Current members are aware of this news, but I’d like to share it now with the rest of you — former members, comrades, friends, and supporters.
It is with some sadness, but also gratitude, that I let you know, the MOP Shop is in it’s last days. I was very recently made aware that as our current five year lease ends on January 1st, the terms are set to change, drastically, and include a 2.5x increase in the monthly lease payment, and a transition from a multiple year lease agreement, to a ‘month-to-month.’
Regarding those changes: the former may have been workable, but would have required monthly membership and studio dues to triple, in order to break even, just on the lease. The latter, would make operations feel precarious, and cast a constant uncertainty on the future.
That is why I’ve made the decision to gracefully and gratefully, allow the MOP Shop, at least this iteration, to pass on.
I’ve worked with the property owners, in good faith, to create an exit strategy that gives all of us enough time to vacate. Many of us, especially studio members have a great deal of personal property in the MOP. There is a deadline set for January 15, to have everything out. There will be a liquidation sale for everything left, around the beginning of February. I will help anyone who needs, with labor and transport in this process.
As it stands, and prior to the changes in our lease, maintaining this space, month to month, over the years, has been a hardship and extra financial burden that I’ve gladly taken on because of the returns that I’ve seen, not financially but on a personal and community level. We built a positive, inclusive, community space that has allowed members to pursue their passions, learn new skills, and even start successful cottage industries and full scale businesses.
We’ve helped non-profits get a foothold, through affordable work space, that have gone on to do good things in our community. I’ve had more than a few members over the years, tell me that this place helped pull them out of dark spells of depression, some going as far as saying that having this place has saved their life, by just giving them a place to be, where freedom and creativity was allowed, and encouraged.
I know I don’t speak just for myself when I say that some of the most genuine and lasting friendships that I’ve made in my life, have come from the community that this place fostered. We created a beacon that brought in creative and interesting people, with all sorts of skill sets, from all walks of life. I know that I’ve been inspired by and have learned from, every single member of the MOP, over the years.
We started this from nothing, and built it into what it is. Many thousands of dollars were spent, and several thousands of hours went into it’s creation. Especially large shout outs are due to the founding members, who saw a vision, and made it happen, without large amounts of backing capital, or real precedent. That’s rare. We did a thing, and it was good. We filled an important need in the community that will have lasting and meaningful impacts.
We saved many many tons of materials from the landfills in our salvage efforts over the years, bringing hundreds of projects to life from stuff that would have otherwise been discarded. We set a real precedent locally, nationally, and even internationally with what can be done with reclaimed materials in one place. You were part of that, and that’s really cool.
Early on in this project, I was tasked with creating a mission statement. “To make making as accessible as possible”, is what it came down to. I think we lived up to that. At the end of this unique and special place, I acknowledge the successes as well as the short comings in the role that I played in this thing, but my goodness if I wouldn’t do it all over again, maybe a little better, based what I’ve learned from both the successes and failures. It’s been real.
THE MOP SHOP IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE MOP SHOP.
🖤♻️🔨
With all sincerity, apologies, and deepest gratitude,
Matt Forbes
