Watch above: A local non-profit café and art space opened its doors more than a decade ago. But now, it been forced to shutdown. As Eric Szeto reports, it’s a big blow to the arts community.
EDMONTON — After a year-long zoning battle with the City of Edmonton, Expressionz Café has closed its doors.
“For me it has been a very, very large dream that I’ve been working at for a very long time and it’s a very sad time,” said owner Karyn Stirling.
Expressionz Café opened more than 15 years ago on 118 Avenue and 92 Street. The not-for-profit arts venue and café operated in that location for three years and, after a short hiatus, reopened just off 99 Street and 70 Avenue four years ago.
Home to everything from a local art gallery and market place, to concerts and theatrical productions, Stirling describes Expressionz as a modern-day community centre.
“We bring together all the different facets of the arts under one building, so a lot of people are losing their home.”
Expressionz’s troubles began about a year ago when the café lost its liquor licence because it had “outgrown the AGLC’s definition of a Private Annual Liquor License issued to not for profit groups.” Stirling said neither a permanent licence nor a public event licence could be issued to Expressionz because of its location in a medium industrial zone.
After months of back and forth with the city, Stirling was given the opportunity to apply for a zoning change.
“Expressionz does have the option to rezone the property to (IB) Business Industrial Zone,” Mayor Don Iveson said in a letter to Stirling. “This would allow the café portion of Expressionz to operate under the use class of Specialty Food Services and the portion of the building where liquor is served could operate under the use class of Private Club.
“Karyn, I know that you have worked very hard and spent much time researching a suitable location for Expressionz and I know that the City of Edmonton planners have done all they can to assist you by going above and beyond to find a positive resolution for all, but I see rezoning as the best course of action.”
By that time, though, Stirling said she wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of a zoning change, having exhausted all of her financial resources trying to find a solution. Plus, Stirling said there was no guarantee the application would have been approved. She said she had no choice but to shut down.
“I don’t feel bitter,” Stirling said at Saturday night’s closing bash. “But I feel very sad that our city couldn’t find a way to even come up with something in the short-term, in the intern, to bridge the problem and just help us grow long enough to get to a new location.”
“It is very unfortunate,” said Flavio Rojas, a member of Colective 97 which frequently plays the venue. “Not only do musicians and artists lose a venue where they can showcase their skill, but also the city is losing that important cultural spot.”
Stirling, a born and raised Edmontonian, isn’t giving up altogether, though. She hopes her vision will one day live on.
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“The vision itself is about bringing the arts back into everybody’s everyday lives on a more healing level,” she said.
“It is, right now, homeless. It has spent all its money and all of its energy and all of its efforts. It needs all of those things from other people to come together into the pot to help it move forward and to help it find a new home, if it’s meant to be.”
And it seems as though she’ll have plenty of help along the way.
“We need places like this … to enrich our culture, to enrich ourselves and to have the chance to share with other people, with friends,” said Rojas. “It’s sad to see it go, but at the same time maybe it’s a rebirth of something better, something greater to come. I hope we have the chance to do that.”
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