The Vision

Part of an industrial site for decades, Redesign originally positioned this site as a potential housing development in the Seward Commons planning, but the building’s unique physical characteristics told a different story. 

With high ceilings and a large, column-free front space, the structure offered something rare: flexible interior volume well suited for dance, theater, and performance. Simply put, this is a building that could not be replicated today (certainly not at affordable rents) and was worth preserving for creative use.

The site required significant remediation, the addition of new windows and doors to open it up to the outside world, and dividing into spaces that critical arts organizations could afford.

Community Mission & Impact

Focus Arts has become a collaborative, relationship-driven creative hub. Redesign knows that art sets intention in a space. Partnerships, shared programming, and moments of mutual aid have bubbled up naturally among the businesses and organizations that call this space home.

Focus Arts reflects its community through art integrated into everyday spaces. Framed poems written by youth at the neighboring 826 MSP were printed by Five Square tenant Bench Pressed Letterpress. A magnetic poetry wall with words from the students’ work invites tenants and visitors to use their imaginations in the corridor. Hallways feature curated artwork by local painters, and a large mural by Liv Navratni, created through a community paint process at 50th Street, anchors the exterior.

Focus Arts exemplifies Redesign’s belief in a cooperative creative economy: one where relationships matter, shared resources reduce costs, and stewardship ensures that artists can thrive without sacrificing the long-term health of the building. It shows how thoughtful ownership can protect spaces that cities can no longer afford to recreate, and how, within those spaces, beautiful things happen when people are given room to move, make, and connect.