"One of the neighborhood’s creative whirling dervishes, Elise Long has created an eclectic, soul-warming institution here, which gives classes, performances, and generally liberates the imagination…Check it out."

-Ellen Freudenheim
BROOKLYN! A SOUP-TO-NUTS GUIDE TO SIGHTS, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND RESTURANTS


"It's like tumbling down Alice's rabbit hole.  A giddy, chipped mosaic-floored hallway leads to a stairway of wooden planks.  Three flights up is the Gowanus Arts Exchange, an oasis, serene yet bustling… The Gowanus Arts Exchange is one of the hundreds of small grass-roots cultural centers [that] give the city a large measure of its reputation for artistic vibrancy."

-Jennifer Dunning
Dance Critic
The New York Times

Spoke the Hub is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, multi-purpose, multi-faceted community arts organization which offers the general public:

  • creative arts and fitness classes for toddlers through adult professionals, 7 days a week, at two Brooklyn studios: the Spoke the Hub Re:Creation Center, 748 Union Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues) Brooklyn 11215; and the Spoke the Hub Space in the Gowanus Arts Building, 295 Douglass Street (between 3rd & 4th Avenues) Brooklyn 11217;
  • inexpensive rehearsal, teaching, performance, meeting, and social gathering space for performance artists and other community members;
  • experimental and traditional dance, theater, music and interdisciplinary performances by emerging and established artists with an emphasis on promoting the work of neighborhood artists-in-residence;
  • services to artists which include performance, teaching, exhibit, publication and other employment opportunities, as well as subsidized rehearsal and performance space rental;
  • special projects and events, in the past have included the "Works On the Wall" Art Exhibits, "Miles of Tiles Community Mosaic Project", "Fridays Out Loud Writers Reading Series", the "Recycled Fashion Show & High Tea", the "Holiday Art Sale ", "Big Art Actions", Elise Long's intergenerational "Bandwagon Productions" and the once and future "Spring Prom".
  • Scholarships for young people and a work/study program is available to all teens and adults who cannot afford classes or admission to Spoke the Hub events. No one is turned away from Spoke the Hub classes or performances because of an inability to pay. Barters are also possible to arrange with people who offer special skills (such as carpentry, computer graphics, video taping/editing, etc.)
  • special educational programs offered throughout the year, including a four week September session called "September Specials" which features special fitness, dance and creative arts intensives for the whole family; "Camp Gowanee" which is a 6 week creative arts summer camp with separate sections for adults, teens and pre-schoolers; "Bodywise" workshops which offers short term workshops for bodyworkers and movement professionals as well as interested laymen; "Dance Explorers" which offers young people a chance to study a variety of movement and dance techniques with master teachers throughout the year;
  • and Spoke the Hub's "Young Artists Dance/Theater" performances by young people ages 8-16, and tSpoke the Hub Dancing adults performing original works by Director Elise Long offsite in your own school, community center, church, hospital or place of business.