Kickstarter

Dear awesome supporters -- 

Miranda and I are very proud to announce that The Asheville Darkroom opens doors this week. It's been a much longer process than we anticipated, and we thank you for your patience and think you'll be happy with all the changes. We have finished paperwork to apply as a 501c3 educational facility, and will be open for public use, classes, and workshops starting this week. More information is available at our website, www.theashevilledarkroom.com.

For those of you who are local, we hope you will join us at the River Arts District Studio Stroll this weekend, where the room will be open for you to see our progress, meet other darkroom enthusiasts, sign up for membership, a class or workshop, or just hang out for awhile. Our doors will be open Saturday and Sunday 10am-6pm at the Phil Mechanic Studios.

Miranda and I are also working on your Kickstarter reward photos this week, and anticipate that you can pick them up this weekend at the Stroll. Those of you who are not local, we will get those out to you in the mail the following week. 

Thank you so much for providing Asheville with a place to learn about and practice hands-on, analog photo processes. The darkroom is not dead!!

Our Kickstarter Campaign ended this week, and we just wanted to say THANK YOU!!!!  to every one of you for all of your support!  With KS contributions and the funds from our Studio Stroll print sale and the Benefit Show last weekend we've met and exceeded our goal!! 

We'll be having another organizational meeting soon for any of you who are interested in becoming members.  We'll spend much of July on renovations and repairs, and hopefully be up and running in August!!  We'll continue to post updates throughout this process, but if you'd like to keep up with the darkroom on a more continual basis, please join our Facebook group, "The Asheville Darkroom."

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

From the bottom of our hearts.

Bridget & Miranda

WE DID IT!!! Or more appropriately, YOU did it! Huge thanks to everyone for helping us meet our goal and keep the darkroom open!

The exciting part is that will still have another week until the Kickstarter ends, and still have the benefit at the LAB on Saturday the 16th. So we wanted to share with you some of our goals of what can happen with contributions this week, now that you've made sure that the doors can stay open for the next year.


- We can construct a portable "tunnel" at the door so that multiple people can enter and exit the room to view their prints. We currently have to coordinate with others in the room to flip on the lights, which slows down productivity.

- We can work on solutions for climate control and better airflow. Summer in particular is difficult, and while we have ventilation exiting the room, we have little intake while the room is closed to work.

- We can create light-tight stations so that multiple people can use the color enlargers. Because the room has to be completely dark for color processes, currently only one person at a time can print color.

- We can build tables to get our additional enlargers running, and build drying racks for prints. Due to the incredible amount of enlargers that have been offered, right now most of them simply don't have homes, and our clothespin line drying system could definitely use an upgrade.


If you're on Facebook, please keep up with our progress by joining our group:
http://on.fb.me/theashevilledarkroom

Huge thanks to everyone for supporting darkroom photography, traditional and inspiring art practices, and opportunities in Asheville! We have been truly touched by the out-pouring of support from all of you!

Our deepest thanks,
Bridget and Miranda

Hello darkroom supporters! We have two great events to announce!

This weekend, we will have the darkroom open for the duration of the River Arts District Studio Stroll, which is Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 6pm. We are located on the Flood Gallery level of the Phil Mechanic Studios. We will have many prints, both framed and unframed, for sale to benefit our Kickstarter. These prints have been donated by local photographers and fellow darkroom supporters. Come check out the space, ask questions, look through some great art, and hang out with us. Did we mention we're also making you cookies?

We are also so pleased to announce our lineup for our benefit party at the Lexington Avenue Brewery on Saturday June 16th! Doors open at 8pm with a $5 suggested donation. Come check out our auction/raffle items early, then music starts at 8:30.

MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE BY:
Found World Bellydance
Hello Hugo
Kovacs and the Polar Bear
DJ Minori & DJ Clif

RAFFLE / AUCTION ITEMS FROM THE KIND FOLKS AT:
Izzy's Coffee Den
Copy Works of Brevard
The Lexington Avenue Brewery
The Orange Peel
Highland Brewing Company
Troy & Sons Distillery
Harvest Records
French Broad Brewery

...and includes Biltmore, Orange Peel, and BREWGRASS tickets!

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Critter Thomas, Rose, Rob, Jeff, and the whole crew at the LAB!
As well as YOU -- our Kickstarter backers!

RSVP to the event on Facebook and keep up with our raffle/auction goodies!
http://on.fb.me/darkroombenefit


Our deepest thanks,
Bridget and Miranda

Hi everyone! Two and a half weeks to go... 50 backers and just over half way to our goal! Thank you so much for getting us there!

We just wanted to share the wonderful article that Carol Motsinger wrote about us in Sunday's Citizen-Times. We couldn't be more excited: 

http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120527/BUSINESS/305270015/Motsinger-Asheville-s-public-darkroom-deserves-future?odyssey=mod_sectionstories 

We have lots of plans in the works with the upcoming River Arts District studio stroll and benefit at the Lexington Avenue Brewery that we will share with you soon. 

Our deepest thanks, 
Bridget and Miranda