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Milo Arts Sold?

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Started 3 years ago by westhardin
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Susie

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Hi West - it's good to "see" you too. Thank you for the management slap - albeit that was very unnecessary. We have always spoke highly of you and Scott. It's too bad that you feel the need to berate us publicly. . .so unbecoming.

As for myself - I enjoyed our conversations and thought you were being genuine when you both seemed to be having a great time hanging out with all of us - even at the last Meet & Greet you guys attended. Was it because you and I were wearing the same colors? :)

It's interesting to see the panic and rumors among those who aren't even living here. You all are hilarious. We're all fine and dandy at Milo. Rick is still in control of the building. There was a bid on it - however - that does not mean it's sold.

Re: "Several fires" at Milo. Uhm, no, there was one. That was five years ago. It was confined to one studio. An artist, with multiple glaring issues, walked off and left a mountain of candles burning among all of his oil paint. Poof!

That studio is being renovated for a ceramics artist - who still resides at Milo.

In all actuality - currently we have an awesome group of artists at Milo. There is a great deal of peace within the community and everyone is enjoying that peace immensely. Makes working and living together a much more wonderful experience.

Come what may - Milo will remain - in spite of detractors and nay-sayers.

Just a thought. . .but wouldn't it be great if the art community would not just "talk" embracing diversity and acceptance? Actions still speak louder than words. Old saying - but true. Is that acceptance for everyone - or only those you pick and choose - who meet your list of criteria? Sounds like the "Church" to me. I gave the "Church" up for Lent 15 years ago - don't want to go back to that hypocrisy. Don't want to see the same hypocrisy gain a foothold in the art world.

Rather than backbiting and tearing each other apart, how about we focus on the positives - and leave the negatives BS to someone else?

Posted 2 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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That was weird.

Posted 2 years ago #
Coreroc
Egoville USA
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I feel Milo is like that old saying give a man a fish and feed him for a night. Teach him to fish and he will be fed for a lifetime.

Events and marketing are the key to any venue. If you want the arts to survive you MUST put effort into your product. I really want to see events at Milo and promotional material that draws new people to the area. I would love to see signs of building investment and remodeling. All in all I would like to see the proof in the pudding rather than a brash defense!

Posted 2 years ago #
lifeliberty
Here
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somertimeoh wrote >>
That was weird.

it is so funny to read a response like this with Betty White's voice in my head!

Posted 2 years ago #
somertimeoh
Harrison West
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lifeliberty wrote >>

somertimeoh wrote >>
That was weird.

it is so funny to read a response like this with Betty White's voice in my head!

It sounded a little Rose Nyland-ish in my head as I was typing it.

Posted 2 years ago #
westhardin
Columbus, OH
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Hi Susie, sorry you felt the word "dislike" was berating. But at no time did Scott or I ever hide our feeling about the management of Milo. Even you spoke with Scott and I of your own frustrations with the place. Scott and I are accepting and tolerant of things we dislike, even work with them. It helps us understand them better and ourselves, sorry if that was misleading. But to clarify, we liked the people that were management, just not the management style. Sorry that wasn't clear in my post.

Sorry you felt this was an attack on Milo, but I don't believe anyone has posted anything here that should be viewed as an attack. I believe myself and others even said we hope everything works out for the people at Milo and they can continue staying there. I believe I have said in the past and continue to say that Milo was a good learning experience for both Scott and I. And this post was made with the intent of genuine inquiry about the state of Milo with said sale.

Your defensive reply is what's unbecoming. Your post really speaks for itself and I think the people here can see the hypocrisy. As you said, "Actions still speak louder than words."

Posted 2 years ago #
jgoldstick

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Susie wrote >>
Re: "Several fires" at Milo. Uhm, no, there was one. That was five years ago. It was confined to one studio. An artist, with multiple glaring issues, walked off and left a mountain of candles burning among all of his oil paint. Poof!
That studio is being renovated for a ceramics artist - who still resides at Milo.

I was the person who pulled the alarm for that fire. I built the website and lived at milo for a year and a half. The fire was caused by bad wiring was the story I heard.

Posted 2 years ago #
turnedNOTburned
Grandview/Columbus, Ohio
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This is going to seem off topic, but, its not. There's a seeming "dark cloud" on the horizon for all of the large older warehouse/building spaces, its "The energy bill". It will dramatically increase utility costs (for good reason, we need to change the way we use energy). The single largest expenses for these buildings is gas/electric. I think once you get it on paper, it will make more sense to move to a more energy efficient, newer structure - one that is designed FOR artists, BY artists, not a repurposed space. Increased energy cost will make it increasingly difficult to support these larger, older buildings - costs ARE going to go up. I fear that the increased pressure from this in the current economy will make life tougher on the creative people and their studios. We should prepare NOW.

Luckily, Columbus has a few dedicated people who have already sown some seeds of change. I'm hoping future costs of energy and need for energy conservation are factored into the design. I look forward to what they will turn into. I can only hope the best for Milo. Good luck guys.

Posted 2 years ago #
alexbandar
Columbus, OH
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Hello everyone,

Good to hear a discussion about art spaces in Columbus. I used to rent a studio at Milo, and have since started my own arts/fabrication community not far from there, called The Idea Foundry.

http://www.ColumbusIdeaFoundry.com

It's not a live-work community, but it's a place where you can rent tools, learn a new skill, or teach one yourself. We have wireless and wired internet, CNC machining, welding, woodworking, etching, metal working, pantagraphy, electronics, programming and more. In the current economic climate, I think it makes sense to "pool" our tools and create a community work space. It doesn't offer the privacy of one's own studiospace, but it does host a great group of artists/fabricators, a whole bunch of cool toys, and a place to use them. Check us out!

cheers,

Alex

Posted 2 years ago #
J.R. Locke
Weinland Park
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I remembered this thread from awhile ago. An update for those ex-Miloans.

Email from Rick and Susan Mann. I don't see why this couldn't be made public.

Dear Everyone. . .

While it's not the best time of the year to make such announcements - it has to be done.

Rick Mann, as all of you on this list know, has fought for a couple of decades to keep this dream - Milo Arts - a reality.

For the last two years I've watched him fight - day in and day out, month after month, countless hours - usually more than 80 hours per week - fighting the fight to keep Milo Arts afloat. Rick has sheltered Milo with everything he has day and night. He has begged and borrowed from friends and relatives to keep Milo going. The amount of himself - mind, body and soul, - that he's put into it cannot be calculated. The average person would have bowed, folded, and been compressed by the pressures Rick has been under to keep this Milo dream alive. . .especially after fighting off the City of Columbus, losing millions of dollars only to turn around and fight off the attempt at eminent domain by the developer.

Accolades weren't needed, nor pats on the back - Rick poured his heart and soul, and his finances, into what he saw Milo Arts as - a bastion of freedom, yes - for the artists, but more so for the individuals who reside here. To him, the effort was worth all that he put into it.

When the mortgage company, Bayview, started foreclosure action earlier this year - we could not stop the action, but Rick still didn't want to see the dream fade into the annals of history. Once again he threw his body in front of it and filed a bankruptcy to stop the judges final gavel slamming down for the foreclosure. It did stop it - until now.

Before panic ensues - to the Milo Arts residents - you do not have to run screaming from the building with all of your possessions in tow.

Tomorrow Rick has to be back in court and unfortunately they will more than likely throw the book at him, rip his skin off and salt him. Even with all of the hours he logs, weekly and monthly, with the amount of day to day business, distractions with other issues that occur every day - enough focus was not put on those things that absolutely HAD to be done. Even with four of us working in the office - we were still pulled away by a multitude of matters that kept us from getting the work finished that needed to be finished.

What this means - and getting directly to the point - the Milo Arts dream will more than likely conclude tomorrow. Bayview, the mortgage company, will be given this building. What their plans are - are uncertain to us.

Suffice it to say - Rick's heart, mind and soul are totally broken by this. He is hurting to his bone marrow for all of you. Feeling like a failure is an understatement to how he's taking this. Even though he tried to do everything within his power to save it - it has slowly steamrolled right over him. He's been kind of like the one man standing against the tank in Tiananmen Square.

For months Rick has talked about the locomotive coming at him full steam. Try as he did to stop it, he was only able to slow it down a little - tomorrow it will hit us full on.

All of this is to say that we will wait for tomorrow, for the ax to fall. . .and will hopefully be able to tell you what their plan of action is going to be for Milo Arts. The fact remains that you do not have to move from your home immediately.

We've looked for ways, he's tried every way imaginable, to keep this from happening. We're where he knew we would be - but was just not able to stop what was happening.

The only thing we can say is that our hurt and sorrow is beyond what is endurable right now. Rick is looking at 20 years of his life being taken from him. No one can say he did not fight enough or put enough of himself into Milo to keep it.

Our apologies to all of you cannot be stated deeply enough. We are so very sorry it has come to this.

You'll never know how much Rick truly loves, admires and is thankful to all of you who have had faith and belief in the dream - and have been or are currently being a part of trying to see it through. You don't know how much he wishes that once again Milo would rise up from the impending ashes. . .

Regrets are inevitable - I have plenty - the what if's, would've, should've, could've's. . .they all come into play at this time.

Many lives will be adversely affected by this, many people will mourn the loss of Milo Arts, many will be saddened by this beautiful, big old building that housed this bastion of freedom being eclipsed. . .

I cannot think of anything else to say right now. . ."sorry" seems completely and totally inadequate. . .

Susan Mann

Milo Arts & Heritage Properties
617 East Third Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43201

Posted 2 years ago #
patient_zero
Falafel District
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This is a recent letter I'm assuming? I worked alongside Rick and Susan in City Center Mall. While I bought five properties, they bought a crap load, and were busy demolitioning each store in an effort to update their lighting systems in Milo Arts. They had a lot of really nice high tech stuff. I put in some serious hours as did they, not unlike what they had done for Milo Arts. It really is sad to read about this.

Posted 2 years ago #
Coreroc
Egoville USA
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A sad note for sure! hopefully some of the newer options in the city will find homes for these great now homeless artists.

If anyone is seriously looking for space to work in contact Info@junctionviewstudios.com and leave a message. I believe that over by Junctionview there will be an additional building that will open to offer spaces. I think it is still in the works, but worth stating your interest now for sure!!!

Posted 2 years ago #
tornangel012
Grandview Heights
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Not cool.... I was just there for the first time Friday and was thinking of looking at the spaces more seriously. A friend of mine just opened his photography studio there this month which is why I was there friday for his open house.

Posted 2 years ago #
futureman
Grandview Heights
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Judge ends bankruptcy protection for Milo Arts center
Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:51 AM
By Doug Caruso
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A bankruptcy judge ended protection for the owner of Milo Arts this morning, leaving the building open to foreclosure.

Owner Rick Mann pleaded for more time. He has rented apartments and studio space to artists in the former elementary school in Columbus' Milo Grogan neighborhood since 1988.

For now, no one has to move out.

Mann told U.S. Bankruptcy judge C. Kathryn Preston at a hearing this morning that winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike damaged the roof of one wing of the building at 617 E. 3rd Ave. in September of 2008, making it impossible for him comply with the terms of the bankruptcy he filed in May.

...

READ MORE

Posted 2 years ago #
J.R. Locke
Weinland Park
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tornangel012 wrote >>
Not cool.... I was just there for the first time Friday and was thinking of looking at the spaces more seriously. A friend of mine just opened his photography studio there this month which is why I was there friday for his open house.

If you want a space I have a studio there until Jan 31st under lease.

I could go on and on about Milo, as I came there with a lot of hope and invested a lot of the last year of my life there. Currently there are a lot of good hearted wonderful people there but there is absolutely no business plan and from my understanding hasn't been one for years. It has always been a transient place.

Anyway I have moved out and moved on but I really do hope they get their things together. Milo has been in the same situation before....

Posted 2 years ago #
futureman
Grandview Heights
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Artists' haven saved, perhaps now for good
Operator's mother buys century-old school in Milo-Grogan for $125,000
Monday, October 18, 2010 04:49 AM
BY MARK FERENCHIK
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Milo Arts remains alive in a neighborhood struggling to regain vitality.

After a year in which its existence was very much in doubt - again - Rick Mann's urban enclave for artists in the century-old Milo Elementary School is surviving thanks to an infusion of cash from his mother.

Failsafe Ventures LLC, run by Mann's mother, Dorothy Mann, of Granville, bought the building on Oct. 1 for $125,000. Franklin County's appraised value was $325,500, and the previous owner - IB Property Holdings - had paid $280,000 for it at an April sheriff's sale.

The 1894 schoolhouse had gone into foreclosure when Rick Mann struggled to pay the bills after the remnants of Hurricane Ike whipped through Columbus in 2008, peeling back the roof over the building's annex and gym while scattering roof tiles from the schoolhouse.

...

READ MORE:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/10/18/artists-haven-saved-perhaps-now-for-good.html?sid=101

ETA - Video: Rick Mann talks about his struggles with Milo Arts

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/multimedia/video/video.html?videoUrl=http://www.dispatch.com/live/export-content/sites/dispatch/videos/2010/10/11/milo-arts.xml

Posted 1 year ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Here's hoping the lower price not only brings the break-even point to within reach, but also makes the building a little easier to insure--I'm just speculating, but I would guess that it must not have been insured when those Hurricane Katrina spinoff winds damaged it, or it wouldn't have been such a financial calamity for the owner.

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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I am guessing there is a lot of water damage...

Posted 1 year ago #