A quick heads up to New York Kickstarters: I’ll be speaking tonight at the School of Visual Art’s Dot Dot Dot lecture series about Kickstarter. The event is at Galapagos in DUMBO, costs just $6, and runs from 6:30 - 8:30pm. Reserve a seat here.

Best of all, the other speakers are amazing: Dr. Jay from Hello Health; Laureen Barber, co-owner of the legendary Blue Hill restaurants; and Robert Fabricant of frog design. Should be fascinating.

If you feel like braving the snow, come out and say hi. Thanks!

EDIT: Well, nevermind. Due to the snow the talk tonight has been postponed. We’ll let you know the new date when we know it.

LaunchPad will be a mixed-use community art space in New York City where people can hang out, talk about ideas, and start creative projects. Founder Michael Kunitzky plans for the venue to host rotating art exhibits, pot lucks, classes, movies, craft-making, and any other kind of happening that participants can dream up. “It’s literally a blank canvas,” he says of the empty store-front in Brooklyn where the project will take root. “Just waiting to be transformed into a creative haven where people with similar (and diverse!) interests can hang out and inspire each other.” He hopes to be able to open LaunchPad this spring — but in the meantime we chatted him up about the idea, where it came from and where he hopes it will go.

Check it out below. Support the endeavor here.

How did this idea evolve? What planted the seed, so-to-speak?

It began as an idea for a coffee shop. Except we wanted it to be much more interactive, revolve around the arts, and have a transformable setup that could accommodate a variety of activities. Something like a giant communal living room with regular guests and rotating events. We gathered concepts from numerous projects/people/places we’ve come across in our travels and blended them with our own daydreams. As our idea took on more shape, we realized that a “product” wasn’t our goal. What we really wanted was the people and the projects and the atmosphere. So we decided to create LaunchPad.

What do you envision as the ideal “day” at LaunchPad? How does the space you’re envisioning look and feel? Feel free to be grandoise. 

To us, LaunchPad feels like home. A warm, comfortably, cozy living space where we work together, create together, feast together, laugh together, and sometimes even sing together.

The ideal day begins with a breakfast book club in the backyard. Fresh fruit, tasty treats, and hot coffee make their rounds as participants discuss the book of the week.  Someone is watering the vegetables in the garden. Inside, couches and chairs are spotted with various individuals working on their own writings/paintings/sketches. The vibe is calm, creative, collective. The walls are covered with photographs, pencil drawings, and colorful illustrations. The room empties and fills again with people partaking in a screen printing class. They share tools and supplies and stories and ideas, and together and separately they create beautifully designed pieces. Someone brought homemade brownies! Later on, another wave of curious souls washes through the space, some regulars and some first time visitors. They stop in to check out art displays, meet new people, tweak a project, sign up for a class, and/or take a load off.  Evening comes and others file in. They greet each other warmly and arrange all the seats so that each one has a good view. The smell of popcorn wafts through the air. The white curtain drops and the projector comes to life…

What makes a space like this important?

In a busy city like New York, it’s easy for people to lose touch with each other — and sometimes themselves. Community plays an important role in the overall well-being of an individual (and a city) but is too often neglected. It provides a sense of togetherness, a network of encouragement and cooperation. It divides and conquers workloads and is a powerful instrument for change. By combining community with art, we hope to create a comfortable and welcoming environment that motivates the mind, strengthens the heart, and inspires the soul.

For $40, backers will get a random, unique and hand-made prize. Can you give us some teaser examples of items they might expect? Or is that cheating?

It’s a surprise! But you won’t be disappointed, trust us. We’ll have a variety of great artists (including some from Kickstarter) creating the random prize rewards.

How has your use of Kickstarter been so far?

Kickstarter is brilliant! We’re both completely addicted. By allowing people to share great ideas and discover major talent, Kickstarter has established an incredibly contagious cycle of creative production. It has definitely been an inspiration to us and a huge motivator in pulling together the final pieces of the LaunchPad puzzle. We are very glad that Kickstarter exists.

Thank You!!! to the entire Kickstarter community, both project creators and project supporters. “We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams…”