ABOUT A.P.E.
CORE VALUES
SPACES
WHO WE ARE
ADVISORS AND ASSOCIATES
CONTACT US
VISIT
HISTORY
CORE VALUES
Space stewardship
A.P.E. is committed to keeping its spaces affordable and accessible to artists, fueled by the understanding that space, time, and protection from economic pressure are critical for the realization of creative work. A.P.E. currently stewards two spaces—the Gallery at 126 Main Street (since 2008) and the Workroom at 33 Hawley Street (since 2018)—in which we honor time and space for creative process, including fallow time.
A.P.E. regards space stewardship as a responsive and creative practice of tending to that with which we have been entrusted, with an understanding that spaces are made and shaped by the activities that happen within them. Our work is to ensure there are places for artists to do their work and programs through which multiple perspectives, interconnection, and imaginative activity can occur and thrive.
The work of art / the work of artists
As an artist-founded, artist-led, and artist-centered organization, A.P.E. embraces the role of creative process as vital to the well-being of individuals and communities. We trust the work of artists in society, and value the ways artistic inquiry can help us ask questions, become responsive to the needs of the moment, catalyze political and social change, alter the terms of our perception, and venture into the often-avoided realms of the uncertain and unknown. A.P.E. centers creative process, artistic inquiry, development of new work, and art as catalyst for cultural conversation.
Each of the staff members at A.P.E. maintains an active creative practice, balancing administrative duties with ongoing artistic labor and collaborations. We engage in the running of A.P.E. with a creative process lens.
Partnerships
A.P.E. values its active partnerships with the Northampton Community Arts Trust, 33 Hawley, and our building partners at 33 Hawley: the Northampton Center for the Arts and Northampton Open Media. A.P.E. also shares a long history of partnership with the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, Serious Play Theatre Ensemble, No Theater, Anchor House for Artists, Historic Northampton, and Cellblock Visions. Additionally, A.P.E. partners with local artists and arts organizations through our fiscal sponsorships program, supporting access to grants and funding through our 501(c)3 status.
Community and cultural impact
A.P.E. recognizes its role in shaping the culture and conversation of the local and regional community in relationship to the interconnected networks of artists, makers, organizations, and institutions that exist in the geographic region of the Connecticut River Valley. We trust the abundant wisdom, inquisitiveness, and perceptual capacity of our community, and seek out collaborations and alliances that enrich this artistic ecosystem and offer us opportunities to grow and learn in the company of each other.
Equally important to the artwork that appears on and within A.P.E’s walls is the fostering of these spaces as sites for people with a diversity of interests, practices, and cultural identities to encounter one another, be in dialogue, and find meaning in those encounters. Towards this, A.P.E. has developed the Workroom Cooperative, a program that expands the activation of the Workroom at 33 Hawley through offering “space/curation shares” to local artists / arts organizations.
Equity, diversity, and justice
A.P.E is committed to ongoing action for racial and social justice within its staff, boards, space access, stewardship, and programming. We seek increased understanding of our positions, individually and organizationally, in relationship to the interlocking oppressive systems of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and ableism. We are committed to transparency in A.P.E’s operational structure, curatorial practices, and programming, and seek to be responsive and adaptive to the challenges of the present, and to artists' changing and evolving needs.
“Being responsible for creating the future, it is important that we keep alive our capacity to imagine what that might be lest we continue to recreate the present.”
- Gordon Thorne; A.P.E. Founder
SPACES
Gallery
A.P.E.’s street-level gallery space, with large storefront windows, is approximately 2,000 square feet. The space is used for visual arts, performance, readings, music, projects and community special events. The space is equipped with 50 chairs, a flexible lighting grid 14 ft ceilings, two (wheel-chair accessible) bathrooms, and an abundance of natural light.Second Floor
The second floor houses A.P.E.'s offices and Library.Third Floor
A.P.E. has renovated the top floor of the building to work as a new space for 'The After School', a creative resource learning center directed by Anne Woodhull. Programs began in the Fall of 2009. Connected to the After School is a large open studio space for special projects and workshops, and the roof above supports a recently installed 4.5 KW photovoltaic array.Mezzanine
The floor below street level is open office space, currently leased to local designers. This space is designed to create a collaborative office environment with several different work areas sharing administrative and technical services. For more information and availability, contact A.P.E.Rental Information
A.P.E. does not rent out its spaces for corporate or private events.
The Workroom
Conceived as a space for the exploration and creation of new work as well as a performance and exhibition venue, A.P.E.'s 3,800 square-foot WORKROOM accommodates a wide array of projects, supporting the current and next-generation of artists. Housed within the Northampton Community Arts Trust's local arts complex, 33 HAWLEY, The Workroom offers the community a space of unique size and flexibility in which to experience and encounter creative work. As one of three building partner arts organizations at 33 Hawley, A.P.E. stewards the Workroom guided by its mission to support affordable spaces for inquiry and creativity.If you are interested in renting space in The Workroom, please contact Sandy Timmerman.
Please direct all technical and space-related questions to Kathy Couch
Carole's Dance Studio
A.P.E. shares access to Carole's Dance Studio and makes it available to rent for rehearsals and classes.Please contact Sandy Timmerman with questions about renting this space.
WHO WE ARE
STAFF
Kathy Couch
Co-Director/StewardKathy Couch is an artist, educator, arts administrator/advocate, and Bessie Award-winning designer based in Northampton, MA. Working in mediums of light, space, collaboration, and improvisation, Couch creates visual landscapes for performance and installation with/in traditional and non-traditional spaces both nationally and internationally. She has recent and ongoing collaborations with Yanira Castro/a canary torsi, Vanessa Anspaugh, Adele Myers + Dancers, Scapegoat Garden/Deb Goffe, Sara Smith, improvisation ensemble The Architects, and musician Batya Sobel. In her work, Couch uses language, light, and readymade objects to craft experiences of engagement that allow audiences to contemplate moments of being and activate their vital role as contributors to the work and the world. Her work has been seen at Danspace Project, the Chocolate Factory, New York Live Arts, the ICA in Boston, LaMaMa, the Prague Quadrennial, the New Museum in New York City, and the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. Kathy is a founding and current board member of the Northampton Community Arts Trust. She received her MFA in Visual Arts at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and her BA from Amherst College where she eventually taught and mentored students for over 15 years. Kathy first began tending and curating space at A.P.E. in the mid-nineties and is honored to step into this more official role as Co-Director/Steward after her decades of learning and imagining with the many artists and leaders that have shaped A.P.E.
Contact Kathy HERE
Mollye Maxner
Co-director/StewardMollye Maxner (director, dramaturg for new work, choreographer, educator, mother) has made original performance work in collaboration with artists of many disciplines. Artistic highlights include Occupied Territories (Washington DC 2015 / Off-Broadway 2017 / Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Choreography) and Still Life with Rocket (Washington DC 2017 / North Carolina 2019 / Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Choreography and for Outstanding Production), as well as The Trojan Women (Franklin Stage Company 2011), Reading By Lightning (2005-2007), The Silicon Dance Project (2002), The Table Piece (1994-2010) and working as choreographer at American Players Theater in the summers of 2021 and 2022. With a dedication to the intricacies of theater craft and creative practice, Mollye is passionate about new work in theater and multidisciplinary performance. She currently collaborates with her partner to homeschool their two children and revels in her time with them, learning and running through the woods. Maxner is the recipient of the Kenan Fellowship at the Kennedy Center, a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant in Choreography, and a DanceWeb Europe Scholarship for Vienna’s ImpulsTanz Festival. Mollye created and performed new work at A.P.E. in the early 2000’s, finding an artistic home amid the people and philosophy of A.P.E. It is an honor to steward A.P.E. in this next phase.
Contact Mollye HERE
Sandy Timmerman
Space Use Coordinator; 33 HawleySandy Timmerman is an artist, performer, stage manager and cook.
After growing up in rural Indiana and working with her mother and father on the family dairy farm, She graduated with honors from Indiana University in 1990 with degrees in theater and English literature. She then joined the United States Peace Corps traveling to Ecuador as an agricultural extensionist.
After returning from South America she moved to Albuquerque, NM with longtime friend,
Richard Van Schouwen, to pursue a shared dream of beginning a theatre company.
She spent 30 years in New Mexico working in the theatrical community, forming q-Staff Theater and building two theater facilities there. The most recent is a renovated warehouse space in downtown Albuquerque with attached artist residences and work spaces.
During her time in New Mexico she also owned and operated Winning Coffee for 15 years as part of q-Staff's larger enterprises. She often worked around the country in collaborations with other theaters, most often with Double Edge Theatre of Ashfield, MA.
Other collaborations and projects included: Project Coordinator in Budapest Hungary in1997. Assisted theater producer Philip Arnoult with the Trust for Mutual Understanding's US/Hungarian exchange project festival in Budapest, acting as US coordinator for the project. Teacher in Albuquerque NM 2010. She worked at North Fourth Arts Center as a substitute
teacher for adults with disabilities. Project Manager/Stage Manager/Producer Albuquerque NM 2018, coordinated with
the Trust for Mutual Understanding, the city of Albuquerque and Theatre Stereo Akt of Budapest Hungary to produce and create “Promenade Albuquerque” an international project that created work around the living culture of each city (Budapest, Baltimore,
Albuquerque). She is thrilled to be a part of the A.P.E. world.
Contact Sandy HERE
Sophie Gill
Social Media CoordinatorSophie Gill is a Northampton native who returned home to WMass after graduating from Clark University (2023). She received her bachelor’s degree in Media, Culture, and the Arts and Community, Youth, and Education Studies. Having worked at another community-centered art gallery during her time in undergrad, she is thrilled to be back working within the local arts scene—this time at A.P.E.. Sophie, who produced her honors thesis on the transformative nature of community art projects, is the creator of a
small community art and literary magazine, TRACKS, based out of Worcester, MA and finds magazines and other forms of print media fascinating. Most days you can find her behind the counter at the Florence Pie Bar slinging pie and practicing her latte art!
Contact Sophie HERE
Meredith Bove
Program CoordinatorMeredith Bove is a dancer and dramaturg based in western Massachusetts. Her practices move between and across performance, writing, dance, and audio. Through each of these mediums, she is devoted to engaging the tensions between language and embodied experience. She approaches her work in writing, performance, and dramaturgy as possible sites for the excavation of embodied archives, the destabilization of hierarchies, and for the cultivation of increased care, interdependence, and creative kinship. Meredith has taught dance & performance studies at Hollins University (2011-2012 & 2016), Montgomery College (2014-2016), Springfield College (2016), Keene State College (2017-2020), Smith College (2021-2022), and most recently as Visiting Artist in Dance at Mount Holyoke College (2022-2024) where she leads seminars on dance writing, dramaturgy, and queer & feminist performance. She has collaborated as a dramaturg with choreographers Barbie Diewald, Rebecca Pappas, and Lailye Weidman, and has performed in the work of Jérôme Bel, Luis Lara Malvacías, Sharon Mansur, Stephanie Miracle, Jillian Peña, Sara Smith, and Karinne Keithley Syers. Her writing on performance has been published inThINKingDANCE, Culturebot, and Contact Quarterly; forThe Making Room (2018), a collaboration between choreographers Bebe Miller and Susan Rethorst; and by Keene State College's Redfern Arts Center for Reggie Wilson's POWER (2021). She was Associate Editor for Contact Quarterly between 2018-2020, and continues to be influenced by the publication's legacy and commitment to the articulation of the unfolding experience of embodiment. Currently she is Program Coordinator and "unofficial dramaturg" at A.P.E. in Northampton, Massachusetts where she collaborates with co-directors Kathy Couch and Mollye Maxner to steward a number of programs, including Making Ground and the newly formed Workroom Cooperative.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Anne Love Woodhull
PresidentAnne Love Woodhull is the Executive Director of Available Potential Enterprises (A.P.E.) and the President of the Open Field Foundation that owns Bramble Hill Farm in Amherst, Massachusetts. She also works with children and adults as a play therapist and teacher. Anne has coauthored five children’s books and is the author of This Is What We Have (March Street Press, 2001),a poetry chapbook. In 2013 a book of her poems, Night With Its Owl, was published by Hedgerow Books, Amherst, Massachusetts. In 2021 a book of her poems, Racing Heaven, was published by Open Field Press, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Lisa Thompson
Vice-President and ClerkLisa Thompson’s first introduction to A.P.E. was in 1976 as a member of Dance Gallery, a contemporary dance company that was in residence on the top floor of Thornes Market, the original home of A.P.E. It was there that she met Gordon Thorne and Anne Woodhull, the founding directors of A.P.E. After leaving the Northampton area for a number of years, she returned in 1996 and was invited to help Gordon manage A.P.E.’s programs. Since then she has worked as A.P.E.’s Associate Director, stewarding and directing its programming until December, 2022. In her other roles as an arts leader, she is an original member of the ArtSalon steering committee and has been instrumental in the formation of the Northampton Community Arts Trust whose mission is to create and preserve affordable spaces for artists into the future. She is very excited to continue to be part of A.P.E.’s future as a board member and to support the new leadership of Mollye Maxner, Kathy Couch and Meredith Bove. Contact Lisa HERE.
Johanna Higham, CPA
TreasurerJohanna Higham started working with Gordon Thorne and A.P.E. in 1999 and was referred by an advisor. She has been a Certified Public Accountant for over forty years. She has extensive experience in accounting and taxes in many business sectors including non-profit organizations. She has had her own accounting practice since 1992. She has served on several boards including the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants.
ADVISORS AND ASSOCIATES
ADVISORY BOARD
Javiera Benavente
Donnabelle Casis
Carla Costa
Trenda Loftin
Catrin Lloyd-Bollard
Art Middleton
Mary Ramsay
ASSOCIATE ARTISTS
Jil Crary-Ross
Robin Doty
Roy Faudree
Andrea Olsen
Sheryl Stoodley
Jen Polins
Michael Tillyer
HISTORY
A.P.E. was founded in 1977 by and for artists. At its founding, it occupied the top floor of Thornes Market, a five-story renovated department store in the heart of downtown Northampton, Massachusetts. A.P.E.’s spaces were conceived of as “workspaces” for artists, largely determined by the creative needs of the Northampton community and tempered by the commitment of its founding director, Gordon Thorne, with the understanding that space, time, and protection from economic pressure are critical for the realization of new and original work. A.P.E. has always insisted that the work of creating is valuable in and of itself, separate from any economic return.
From 1977 to 2006 A.P.E. provided space for artists working in all disciplines and these projects, programs, and activities contributed to the city's artistic character and cultural impact for over four decades. A.P.E. has also always served as an "umbrella" or fiscal sponsor for a number of artists, art groups, and projects, including No Theater, Andrea Olsen/Dance Gallery, The Anchor House for Artists, and Cellblock Visions.
A.P.E. was an integral part of Thornes Market, managing, programming and maintaining 10,000 square feet of space loosely divided into performance, exhibition, studio and teaching areas.
The A.P.E./Thornes Market 'marriage' remained a successful working model for over two decades. Conceived as a project that would support small, local businesses as well as local and regional artists, the building generated enough income to cover its debt, capital improvements, operating costs, distribute cash to the partners, and provided them personal work and office space, all while contributing 20% of its leasable space rent free to the community and its artists through A.P.E.
The arts/business model developed at Thornes ultimately dissolved, as the partners were unable to create a mission for the building that would pass its success down to the next generation of owners. Unable to make a convincing case for the value that space for creative work contributed to the health and success of the building as a whole, negotiations for the sale of Thornes ultimately placed value only on the business success of the building, failing to recognize the ‘worth’ of A.P.E.’s presence in the building. When Thornes Market was sold in 2006, the A.P.E. spaces were converted to office and commercial use and an important performance, exhibition, and creative work space was lost to the community.
In 2007 Gordon Thorne, one of the original owners of Thornes, and the founding director of A.P.E., used proceeds from the sale of Thornes to purchase the building at 126 Main Street. In 2008, after extensive renovations, A.P.E. moved its operations into this new location. While the 126 Main Street building afforded A.P.E. a large and open storefront visual arts gallery, the building couldn’t accommodate an additional performance space.
Gordon’s work and research in community land trust movements and his engagement with the Schumacher Center for New Economics in Great Barrington, MA led him to a new way of thinking about the long-term protection of art spaces. Inspired by the model of land trusts, he began to conceive of a new entity – an arts trust – that would acquire buildings/spaces to create and hold creative space in perpetuity. This initiative led to formation of the Northampton Community Arts Trust, incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2010 and to the eventual purchase of a building, 33 Hawley, which became the first project of the Trust.
33 Hawley is being renovated into a flexible use arts building and houses three long-standing local arts organizations: A.P.E., the Northampton Center for the Arts, and Northampton Open Media (NOM). Funds from local, state, federal grants, foundations and individual from the community have turned an old lumberyard into an energy efficient, well designed home for the arts. Seventeen years after losing its space at the top floor of Thornes Market, A.P.E. is now able to bring its performing arts programming back to a 3800 square foot Workroom/Theater
From 1977 to 2006 A.P.E. provided space for artists working in all disciplines and these projects, programs, and activities contributed to the city's artistic character and cultural impact for over four decades. A.P.E. has also always served as an "umbrella" or fiscal sponsor for a number of artists, art groups, and projects, including No Theater, Andrea Olsen/Dance Gallery, The Anchor House for Artists, and Cellblock Visions.
A.P.E. was an integral part of Thornes Market, managing, programming and maintaining 10,000 square feet of space loosely divided into performance, exhibition, studio and teaching areas.
The A.P.E./Thornes Market 'marriage' remained a successful working model for over two decades. Conceived as a project that would support small, local businesses as well as local and regional artists, the building generated enough income to cover its debt, capital improvements, operating costs, distribute cash to the partners, and provided them personal work and office space, all while contributing 20% of its leasable space rent free to the community and its artists through A.P.E.
The arts/business model developed at Thornes ultimately dissolved, as the partners were unable to create a mission for the building that would pass its success down to the next generation of owners. Unable to make a convincing case for the value that space for creative work contributed to the health and success of the building as a whole, negotiations for the sale of Thornes ultimately placed value only on the business success of the building, failing to recognize the ‘worth’ of A.P.E.’s presence in the building. When Thornes Market was sold in 2006, the A.P.E. spaces were converted to office and commercial use and an important performance, exhibition, and creative work space was lost to the community.
In 2007 Gordon Thorne, one of the original owners of Thornes, and the founding director of A.P.E., used proceeds from the sale of Thornes to purchase the building at 126 Main Street. In 2008, after extensive renovations, A.P.E. moved its operations into this new location. While the 126 Main Street building afforded A.P.E. a large and open storefront visual arts gallery, the building couldn’t accommodate an additional performance space.
Gordon’s work and research in community land trust movements and his engagement with the Schumacher Center for New Economics in Great Barrington, MA led him to a new way of thinking about the long-term protection of art spaces. Inspired by the model of land trusts, he began to conceive of a new entity – an arts trust – that would acquire buildings/spaces to create and hold creative space in perpetuity. This initiative led to formation of the Northampton Community Arts Trust, incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 2010 and to the eventual purchase of a building, 33 Hawley, which became the first project of the Trust.
33 Hawley is being renovated into a flexible use arts building and houses three long-standing local arts organizations: A.P.E., the Northampton Center for the Arts, and Northampton Open Media (NOM). Funds from local, state, federal grants, foundations and individual from the community have turned an old lumberyard into an energy efficient, well designed home for the arts. Seventeen years after losing its space at the top floor of Thornes Market, A.P.E. is now able to bring its performing arts programming back to a 3800 square foot Workroom/Theater
Gordon Thorne addresses the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires annual meeting with a talk on the concept of a "Community Arts Trust". Gordon describes his evolution as an artist, developer, and executive director of a non-profit as it relates to shaping and maintaining healthy and diverse communities. He believes that arts spaces should be a part of the commons in perpetuity and performing arts spaces be made accessible and affordable to artists in the community.
Gordon Thorne, "Community Arts Trust". Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires annual meeting, February 2009 by Schumacher Center for a New Economics
https://archive.org/details/GordonThornecommunityArtsTrustFebruary2009_3
Gordon Thorne, "Community Arts Trust". Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires annual meeting, February 2009 by Schumacher Center for a New Economics
https://archive.org/details/GordonThornecommunityArtsTrustFebruary2009_3
CONTACT
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Reach us by phone: 413.586.5553
Reserve Tickets
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VISIT
A.P.E. Ltd. Gallery
126 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Phone: 413.586.5553
126 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
Phone: 413.586.5553
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
From 91 South: Take Exit 23, turn left off the Exit ramp, follow Pleasant St. into the center of Northampton. At the major intersection, turn left at the light onto Main St. (Rt.9 North). A.P.E. is on the left at 126 Main St.
From 91 North: Take Exit 26. Merge onto King St. from the Exit ramp and stay on King St. until the intersection of King and Main St. Turn right onto Main St. (Rt.9 North). A.P.E. is on the left at 126 Main St.
Parking behind Thornes Market and on-street.
From 91 South: Take Exit 23, turn left off the Exit ramp, follow Pleasant St. into the center of Northampton. At the major intersection, turn left at the light onto Main St. (Rt.9 North). A.P.E. is on the left at 126 Main St.
From 91 North: Take Exit 26. Merge onto King St. from the Exit ramp and stay on King St. until the intersection of King and Main St. Turn right onto Main St. (Rt.9 North). A.P.E. is on the left at 126 Main St.
Parking behind Thornes Market and on-street.
The Workroom @ 33 Hawley
33 Hawley Street
Northampton, MA, 01060
Phone: 413.586.5553
33 Hawley Street
Northampton, MA, 01060
Phone: 413.586.5553
DRIVING DIRECTIONS
From 91 South: Take Exit 23, turn left off of the exit ramp, take the first exit on the rotary to Pleasant St. Turn right onto Holyoke St and then turn left onto Hawley St. The Workroom is on the left at 33 Hawley St.
From 91 North: Take Exit 26 and merge onto King St. Stay on King St until the intersection of King and Main St. Turn left onto Main St. After the bike path and train bridge pass above the road at the intersection of Main St, Market St and Hawley St, turn right onto Hawley St. The Workroom is on the right at 33 Hawley St.
Parking in the lot adjacent to 33 Hawley.
From 91 South: Take Exit 23, turn left off of the exit ramp, take the first exit on the rotary to Pleasant St. Turn right onto Holyoke St and then turn left onto Hawley St. The Workroom is on the left at 33 Hawley St.
From 91 North: Take Exit 26 and merge onto King St. Stay on King St until the intersection of King and Main St. Turn left onto Main St. After the bike path and train bridge pass above the road at the intersection of Main St, Market St and Hawley St, turn right onto Hawley St. The Workroom is on the right at 33 Hawley St.
Parking in the lot adjacent to 33 Hawley.