The Brick House

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The Brick House

Type	Non-profit
Founded	1999 in the Highlands
Headquarters	Louisville, Kentucky, USA
Industry	Community Centers
Website	The Brick House

The Brick House (formerly The Brycc House) is a community center in Louisville, Kentucky that was inspired by and modeled upon ABC No Rio in New York City. Brick House is organized in "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) volunteer working groups to support community based projects. The community center projects contains groups in areas that work with art, music, bike repairs, radio station,^[1] photography, internet access, comics, gardening, power saving practices, community kitchen, coffee shop, books, donations, and maintenance of the building.^[2] As a youth center, it has inspired numerous youth in the region to create something similar in their towns, such as the Mycc Stand (Madison Youth Cultural Center) in Madison, Indiana.^{[citation needed]}

1 History
2 Conventions and other major events
3 External links
4 References

[edit] History

The Old Brycc House location on Bardstown Road in the Highlands neighborhood

Brick House began as the Bardstown Road Youth Cultural Center (or BRYCC). Brick House was born in 1999 when Bill Allison, a candidate for Third Ward Alderman, met with the staff of Brat Magazine to discuss their concerns about city government and youth issues.^[3] One of the things that the Brat staff wanted was a youth-run youth center. The first Brick House building would be located on Bardstown Road, the north end of which is a major pedestrian-oriented commercial and residential district in Louisville. Allison agreed that this would be a good idea since many voters and constituents had expressed concerns about juveniles wandering the streets.^[3] With different views on the topic about the juveniles it was decided by the staff to help give them a place for the youth.^[3] Allison promised to get money for the center if the Brat staff would put together a proposal and form a nonprofit corporation to run the center. However in the year 2000 the Brat Magazine would become defunct, but some of its organizers would remain working with the Brycc House for years following.^[4]

Bill Allison would help the organization become nonprofit. Brycc House Inc, (Bardstown Road Youth Cultural Center) was formed in 1999 and obtained IRS 501(c)(3) status shortly thereafter.^[3] After several months of searching, the group found a building, renting an old theater in Louisville at Bardstown Road in the Highlands neighborhood and opened Brick House as a community youth center.^[3]

Brick House successfully supported a variety of community projects, such as an on-air radio station (which started as Internet radio, then successfully opened as WXBH-FM 92.7 community radio;^[1] a darkroom and visual arts studio; a public performance space for music, theater, film and more; a community computer lab and media center; meeting space for community groups; host to regional and national conferences and much more.^[3] Several community organizations shared office and work space, such as Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Independent Media Center and Food Not Bombs.

Even with the grant money from the city of Louisville and donations, paying the extraordinary rent was difficult and the center chose to put on music shows constantly for some time to meet expenses. Eventually the Brycc House would close its doors in 2002 due to financial situations.^[2]^[5] The organizers of the center would later considering attempting to purchase the location rather than paying rent. But then later decided to seek a new location.^[2]

In late 2002 the current building was purchased, in the centrally located Old Louisville neighborhood.^[3] The building was in rough shape but affordable and was in a terrific central location. The building is spacious (40'x120') and solidly built (metal frame, metal roof, concrete floor) with multiple work, community and performance spaces. Brick House volunteers cleaned and painted and have high hopes of completely renovating it in time as an ecological friendly building.

Following the purchase of the location the Brycc House became known as just the Brick House since it was no longer located on Bardstown Road. They would then reopen in April 2005 with a music concerts over a weekend.^[2] After the opening one of the new key developments was the attraction of a variety of ages rather just the youth.^[6]

The first few weeks of reopening was difficult following several buglaries and thefts.^[7] However the center rebounded, but organizers still talk of low volunteer levels and fundings.^[7] However the organization has started to receive funds from well established businesses like Yum Brands KFC.^[8]

[edit] Conventions and other major events

As apart of the new locations mission to broaden their community involvement besides just music, the Brick House has gone on to help organize and host events. This is in part to separate its self from just being a local music scene much like the previous Bycc House became known for, and to help establish its self as a community center for everyone.

Examples of such events have been a Southern Girls Convention, Independent Festival of Education, IWW National Conference, Permanent Autonomous Zone Conference, Insominicathon, a community bike ride, an art show, a day for Mountain top removal awareness, a burlesque show, and of course music concerts.^[7]