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Date: 7/11/2023
HOLYOKE — Over the last decade Vitek Kruta and Lori Divine Hudson have been owners of Gateway City Arts, but after not being chosen in the city’s latest round of ARPA allocations plans have shifted to selling the venue in the face of financial challenges.
Divine Hudson told Reminder Publishing she and Kruta figured with business picking up more they would apply for the round of funding looking to cover some payroll and other expenses through upgrades needed to keep the building up to code. She added their request was about half of what they felt they even needed and were hoping the funding could go toward a portion of what they needed extra funding for.
“We’re operating now with a really skeleton staff who are wonderful and loyal and we couldn’t survive without them, but we really need more help and this would have allowed us to get the help we needed,” said Divine Hudson. “We’ve made do but everybody’s quite exhausted. We all want to see this succeed so everybody’s giving it their all.”
Kruta added they were looking for a boost to get the business through the rest of the year and moving forward as they have seen steady growth in bookings and shows. They both said they have 36 people on payroll, and most are local to the area.
Kruta and Divine Hudson said everything has become increasingly financially challenging, from staffing to purchasing supplies and materials. Divine Hudson explained that they both had in mind that if they were not awarded from the latest round of funding, selling would be the next move.
The combination concert venue, restaurant, gallery and coworking space that’s been showcased for its part in the revitalization of downtown Holyoke will continue hosting concerts, performances and events and hope to add a handful more as they honor out their existing contracts.
Kruta explained they will be shutting down Gateway City Art’s Bazaar, the galleries supporting local artists, and outdoor beer garden, the Sunday brunches and Judd’s — the restaurant Kruta said was the regions only Czech restaurant — throughout the remainder of the year.
“We’re hoping to book more parties and events and concerts now through the end of the year. We’re looking to book but we’re not going to be open to the public [in these spaces],” Divine Hudson said.
While everyday operations will be shutting down in these spaces, anything that is included in part of an event such as a wedding or ticketed concert will still be on.
Last month Holyoke announced $19 million in ARPA funding, the city’s last round of grants from the state. Gateway City Arts were just one of the $63 million in total in applications requested to the city and were not included in the allocation of the remaining $19 million.
Kruta said the application process gave him hope for an avenue of help for the business. He added that in this profession, he has to book talent months in advance so that he had to go about that hoping for the funding to come as well later on.
“In this line of business, you cannot wait until you have the money, you have to just plan and do ahead of time everything you can so we had done it with the hope we might get some boost and some help from the city,” Kruta said.
Challenges started for Kruta and Divine Hudson when the coronavirus pandemic caused Gateway City Arts to be closed for 18 months. Kruta said the average 50,000 people that would come through the venue in a normal year was a sign that the space was a driver for the revitalization of Holyoke’s downtown and the growth on Race Street.
“I was under the impression that we were looked at as a driving force and inspiration for many people to come to Holyoke in both real estate and starting a business. I’m not making this up or just living some kind of illusion, we were part of the force,” Kruta said. “Every time something was happening, or some big politician came to Holyoke or somebody would come to visit we would be shown off as a, ‘this is what’s now happening in Holyoke.’ So you would kind of think that the planners and the mayor would actually understand the impact and help but that hasn’t happened.”
Divine Hudson noted they received money as part of the 2022 allocations of ARPA funding but this year around they could not continue their financial trudge any longer without the assistance in funding. No small business applicants received allocations in the most recent round. Awarded from the latest round in the arts venue space was $2 million to the Victory Theater for its restoration.
Divine Hudson and Kruta both said this is the end of the line as owners but as they reflected, they both added how proud they felt having impacted the arts scene in Holyoke for a decade plus.
“[We have] a deep sense of pride and accomplishment. The memories that I’ll have of watching 500 people happy in the music hall thinking, ‘this was a warehouse,’ when we bought it and we converted it to a community space with people meeting and eating and dancing and just having a wonderful time,” Divine Hudson said.
Kruta and Divine Hudson have seen the surrounding spaces of Gateway City Arts change notably during their 11 years as owners. They both are now looking ahead as they plan to sell the space. Both owners said they hope to sell the space to someone with the similar vision of having the venue be a space for arts to thrive in Holyoke.
Divine Hudson added they have already created an amazing opportunity in the space for a new owner to take over.
“That is our sincere hope, we would really like to keep it [as an arts venue]. We’ve spent 11 years and a lot of time and money and sweat, and this is our baby. We don’t want to see it closed. It’s good for the valley,” Divine Hudson said. “We desperately want somebody to come in and take over running it and buying it and starting it with their own vision building onto what we’ve started.”
Kruta described the experience as an education on running a business and all that comes with it. He added learning through this process the nuances of community work and social work with employees has created new motivations for him to pursue something along the lines of activist work after selling.
Kruta, an arts restorer and artist, added the pandemic shined a light for him that governments don’t consider the entertainment and hospitality industry’s as essential businesses and that disconnect is something he wants to work toward fixing.
“How many millions of people are connected to it [the entertainment and hospitality industries] from sound engineers, lighting engineers, hospitality restaurants, but then also costume designers and you name it, you can go on and on, but we have been labeled as non-essential. That has to change, that is not where we artists all want to be because I think we deserve more than that.”