Who We Are:
Robert Elmes ---- Founder / Executive Director Galapagos Art SpacE
Robert Elmes - Founder / Executive Director Galapagos Art Space
Galapagos Art Space, a performing arts venue and gallery project, was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1995. Galapagos had lakes- yes, lakes – in its NYC venues.
“Known for its dedication to the art community, Galapagos Art space guts a 100-year-old building and creates an inspired masterpiece.”
- Green Building and Design
In 1995 - Robert founded Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Galapagos became the key public venue of an artist community that distilled the creative energy of artistic New York City at the time into a single idea. The resulting explosion of interest lead Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to become an international destination for the arts and creative industries, driving cities around the world to study how it could be replicated in their local governances.
In 2008 - following its success in Williamsburg, Galapagos Art Space moved to a location in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Through an innovative ‘digital’ and scientific programming profile, along with its cultural and artistic programing, Galapagos played a key role in rebranding DUMBO as a vital citywide destination for the cutting-edge in tech, the arts and design.
Galapagos Art Space hosted over six hundred fundraising events for non profits, cultural and artistic groups, neighborhood activism and social services organizations. From the little dance company around the corner to the leading arts organizations, Galapagos applied an innovative “no-cost to low-cost” model that helped raise millions of dollars for local initiatives.
In total, Galapagos presented or produced over ten thousand shows, events, and programs attracting over one million five hundred thousand audience members to the venue.
Galapagos presented theater, dance, cinema, TED Talks and science programming, indie classical music and cabaret - and loved every minute of it :)
“Lincoln Center doesn’t have a permanent performance hall quite like Galapagos Art Space”
-The New York Times
The New York Times called Galapagos "an ever-growing cultural oasis", and The Village Voice wrote that Mr. Elmes (is) building a cultural movement brick by brick".
Once built, Galapagos did not accept government grants or public funding in order to operate. Instead it relied on a budget of 100% earned income, peaking at over $2,000,00 per year.
In 2014 Galapagos Art Space moved to Detroit, Michigan, where it pivoted toward more philanthropic activities.
Donations include:
$500,000 to the Community Foundation for South East Michigan.
$2,700,000 of medical debt - including all of the medical debt of the City of Highland Park, Michigan available at the time - was bought. This included a small portion Detroit residents medical debt as well.
$50,000 to Soulardarity for a project at Juan Shannon’s beautiful Parker Village
$70,000 to the Detroit Waldorf School
$50,000 to Andy Arts, an important independent dance facility in Detroit.
$20,000 to Big World Pictures to support their purchase and distribution of art house films by renowned international filmmakers developing an audience in North America.
Highland Park’s George Washington Carver Academy received $2,500 to help homeless families during the covid epidemic.
Ukraine:
Robert went to Ukraine at the outset of the war and working with groups of volunteers brought out over 150 refugee women and children, LGTBQ people, and senior citizens. Working out of Tomaszow Lubelski in Poland and Lviv, Ukraine, the groups brought in donated civilian supplies and supported towns as far as Lviv and Buchach and Ivano-
$50,000 was donated to start and help manage Refugee Associal, a Portuguese non profit.
Six artist families with children were brought out of Ukraine and Eastern Europe and flown to the Azores, Portugal. Once there they were supplied housing, food, medical care, mental heath care, and the children were enrolled in local schools. Robert and Galapagos partnered with Sustain Azores and the theater director Paul Bargetto to make this possible. Our work can be seen here.
$50,000 to Progressive Path - a group helping Ukrainian civilians with medical and food issues inside the country.
Elmes, b. 1966 in Hamilton, Canada, grew up in Crescent Beach, British Columbia, and currently lives in Detroit, Michigan.