The Drake’s original spirit celebrated at new venueDate: 10/5/2021 AMHERST – In an effort to revamp their downtown scene after the pandemic, the Amherst Business Improvement District (BID) and Downtown Amherst Foundation have announced that The Drake Live Performance and Music Venue will open in downtown Amherst during winter 2022.
The organizations plan to officially open the space on the second floor of the North Pleasant Street bank building.
Named after the iconic neighborhood bar that closed in 1985, The Drake will serve as a place for performance acts in genres like classical, funk, jazz, rock and roll, etc. The goal is to have it be a place for musician start-ups and established musicians from all over the place. Beyond that, the venue will also host community events, science nights, open mic nights – for over 21 and under 21 –comedy nights, and act as a place for all ages to congregate.
The Downtown Amherst Foundation, which is nonprofit organization founded right before the pandemic hit, pivoted their vision over the past 18 months to become a microgrant and a resiliency fund for businesses throughout Amherst. Throughout that time, the Downtown Amherst Foundation worked with the city’s chamber of commerce to administer $500,000 in microgrants through various marketing campaigns and fundraisers to these businesses so downtown could continue to thrive.
Coming into 2021, the Downtown Amherst Foundation and BID began considering what Amherst needs to push them forward economically. According to Gabrielle Gould, the executive director of the Amherst BID and Downtown Amherst Foundation, the organizations looked at 10 years’ worth of surveys from the town, the chamber, and the BID, and found that the number one necessity in Amherst was live music and a performance space.
“We have an incredible arts and culture community here, but none of it is focused on live performances,” said Gould. “That’s where we came up with the idea to build a live performance space that’s open year-round to the public and have state-of-the-art sound and lighting so it can be not only community use but also bring nationally and internationally-recognized acts.” The goal is connecting the community beyond Amherst, or even the state, according to Gould.
Although the new The Drake will be a venue rather than a full-on bar, the name itself still carries the mythic qualities of the old one that found success in the 1960s and 1970s. The old bar’s below-street Rathskeller spot was notorious as a smoky dive and was known for being “funky and a little exotic.” The old building, located at 85 Amity St., became Drake’s Hotel in 1938 and held that name in local vernacular when the bar became a large hangout in the 1960s and 1970s. A real estate developer bought the building in 1985 for residential use.
Since then, graffiti on the wall of Amherst Cinema reading, “Save The Drake” and “For Willy, for humanity” – referring to the longtime bartender of the Rathskeller – carried the spirit of the name.
The new performance venue is not a place for competition, according to Gould. It is meant to be a compliment to the area. “Part of what we need to grow and nurture is our diversity,” said Gould. “Art and culture builds that diversity and unity into downtown. Our goal is to build that longer and further.”
Amherst BID and Downtown Amherst Foundation are also speaking with schools about the possibility of students performing, thus allowing students to gain experience and prepare audition pieces for their future careers. On a more national level, the organizations are working with Easthampton’s Laudable Productions to book more well-known acts, which is something they have done in the past in booking artists like Suzanne Vega. Klondike Sound will be hired to do the sound, space, and lighting, while Kuhn Riddle Architects is offering architectural and technical support.
“Laudable is awesome,” said Gould. “I think we’re all in that hurry up and finish phase because we just finished demo, and now we need to build it and do the fundraising. We’re trying to make everyone not put the cart before the horse.”
As of press time, the goal for crowd sourcing is $250,000, and the BID is currently 10 percent there at $25,000. They are planning to conduct larger fundraising projects as they get closer to the official opening. “We want the community to really feel like they are part of this,” said Gould. To get to where they are now, BID and Downtown Amherst Foundation received a $175,000 state grant from a pilot program, and $80,000 have gone in to build the sound and lighting systems. They have also received grants from places like Mass. Cultural and plan on applying for funds from the town, as well. The opening of this venue, according to Gould, will be the critical start of future arts and culture development. For example, the Town Council recently unanimously approved the addition of a permanent performance shell in the town common, which is set to be built in 2023 after fundraising.
“Our take is if we can have a year-round indoor space, that gives us the impetus to move forward and to have the support and success rate to do a much larger campaign,” said Gould, regarding the bandshell and other projects. “We have a lot that we want to see happen, but right now our focus is building our arts and culture as that economic and destination driver for Amherst. There so much potential to this space.”
Lincoln Allen, formerly of Amherst Coffee, will be managing the operations and of the bar and space, while the BID Events and Marketing Director Ann Tweedy will be responsible for programming local and regional music, as well as other nightly performances. For more information on donating, visit https://www.patronicity.com/projects/search_projects?search=the+drake.
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