Moments at TGR

Dear NYC,

I hope that informing you of my mission and the current barriers to achieving it will influence the way the people in New York City and beyond work to serve and save the creative communities that need help.  My company, The Garment Room, nurtures artists and art communities in New York City by combining retail with an open arts space and workshop where artists and designers can find inspiration, collaborate, gain entrepreneurial experience, and most importantly, create.  What started out as a three day weekend event to raise money for our current location has now evolved into a modern day movement to support the endangered artistic communities being steamrolled by corporate expansion and greed.  Our persistence has paid off and the world has started to take notice.  This approach to retail was constructed in order to meet a diverse set of needs for artists who are struggling through this recession.

The unwarranted disproval of yet another NYC co-op board is forcing me to shut my doors and discontinue offering services to our community.  To make matters worse, they have gone to great measures to get me out immediately so that I have no time to raise the extra capital I need to move to another location.  We’ve seen SoHo and other art communities dry up. We’ve seen them kick us out and replace us with shopping malls.  This time, we cannot stand for it!  The City offers so-called resources through Small Business Services, the Commission on Human Rights the Department of Cultural Affairs, among others; but these and many countless agencies repeatedly tell me that I’m “slipping through the cracks.”  The nature of my work as a small business owner, artist and community-builder requires protection rights, grants and legal services that I do not qualify for.  Thus, I must turn to my people, and I need your support more than ever.   Please help me prove the power of the creative community by donating $20 in support of our new space around the corner.  I might have just a week left at 112 Greene.  Let’s make it count!  We don’t have to focus our energy on the injustice of the system and the adversity to artists.  Let’s turn our energy towards a new home, a bigger and better home that will have an even larger impact on the world, allowing us to expand our arts program to the next level.  We will not be forced out of SoHo!  If you have been to The Garment Room you know the importance of our space.  If you have never been, I urge you to come experience it in its last days at 112 Greene.  We have reduced all of our merchandise in the store up to 80%.   Any purchase you make at the store or any $20 contribution made online will help us secure our next location and help protect the livelihood of many artists that depend on spaces like ours.

To the artists that know and love the space, do not be discouraged or angry by this.  By now we are conditioned for challenges and we NEVER give up!  Thank you all for helping me come this far, for teaching me so much and for sharing your gifts and talents with me and the rest of the world.  I love you all.  And I will see you around the corner.

Kisses,

Tiffany Nicole

The Garment Room