Save the clock tower!
Spokane has always been a city with a small but passionate independent music sector, which has been able to thrive due to the activism on the part of students and local establishments friendly to the arts. Many Whitworthians have fond memories of nights spent at the Empyrean, a downtown coffeehouse which serves up more culture than you’ll find at any dozen regular establishments.
Unfortunately, a recently passed state law (RCW 19.27.500) requiring automatic sprinklers in all “nightclubs” (any place with a dance floor larger than 350 square feet) has the potential to force the Empyrean to shut down.
The Empyrean, founded two years ago by sisters Chrisy and Michelle Riddle as a personal commitment to community service, has been one of Spokane’s greatest friends to independent artists, poets, and bored students.
Installing a new sprinkler system would cost more than $20,000, which is money the owners do not have.
“It will basically shut us down,” Co-Owner of the Empyrean Chrisy Riddle said.
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The sisters don’t make any money here, but they rely on their day jobs for income. They say this is their community service.
“I always had this dream about owning a coffee shop that would be also a center for the arts,” Riddle said.
She may have to wake up from the dream this winter, when a new law will require any business with a performing or dancing area that has an area 350 square feet or more, to have automatic sprinklers installed.
“Unless some miracle happens, or the law changes, or somehow we find the money we need, our plan is that we may have to close on November 30,” Riddle said.
[News coverage: http://www.kxly.com/Global/story.asp?S=10667473]
The Empyrean’s closure would truly be a great loss to the community. Unfortunately, it sounds as though the amount of money in question is essentially insurmountable without what Riddle calls a “miracle.
So here’s a thought: Whitworth’s students have the capacity to make that miracle happen. $20,000 across, say, 2,000 students starts to look pretty affordable pretty fast. I’m not intimately familiar with ASWU bylaws and financial regulations (especially as an ex-student), but it seems to me that a few motivated campaigners could get a benefit concert going on-campus. With sufficient impassioned advertising, a $10-30 ticket price over the course of one or two concerts could make a serious dent in solving the Empyrean’s problem.
What sorts of creative solutions do you folks have?