Inside The Alluvion

A performing arts venue designed by musicians for musicians

By Greg Tasker | Aug. 5, 2023

Without a doubt, there are plenty of places in Traverse City for musicians to take the stage and perform: The City Opera House, the Dennos Museum Center, and Interlochen Center for the Arts, as well as countless bars, breweries, and wineries.

But for many local musicians, those options come with challenges. Performing at large venues requires considerable ticket sales, and singing at drinking establishments could mean singing before a disinterested crowd.

A newly opened venue in Traverse City aims to change that.

The Alluvion, a 150-person-capacity venue and event space, is the city’s newest performing arts center, located on the second floor of the Commongrounds Cooperative building on Eighth Street. Designed by musicians for musicians, the nearly 4,000-square-foot space is equipped with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment.

“For those who have never been, it’s the most magical experience,” says Andrew Lutes, a musician and Commongrounds’ operations and membership director. “It’s almost hard to talk about without getting emotional. It’s like the room itself is almost alive and needs us [musicians and performers] to be in it to survive. It’s very clear we did not have this size of intimate space to connect to the immersive performing arts before.”

How It Started

The dream of a performing space like The Alluvion goes back a few years as the idea of Commongrounds Cooperative was formed. Commonplace community coworking and Higher Grounds coffee were the thought leaders behind Commongrounds Cooperative, whose mission to build “a more empowered community through cooperatively owned places that connect people and actively integrate wellness, art, family and food.”

Looking to create a physical space, project team leaders asked the community what they would like to see in the mixed-use building. Responses included a place where families are welcome, a place for childcare, a place to connect “more robustly” to the food network (beyond farmers markets), a place for workforce housing, and an intentional space for art.

The organization’s pilot project—the Eighth Street building—went forward, following a successful fundraising campaign. While the pandemic slowed the construction process, Commongrounds Cooperative opened earlier this year.

The four-story structure is home to nonprofit, business, and residential tenants; visual arts programming; and events—all at that intersection of wellness, art, family, and food. Essentially, the building at 414 E. Eighth St. is a partnership between all owners, which includes all the commercial businesses and nonprofits and the community, Lutes says. The organization is nearing 1,000 community owners.

Plans for the building did go forward without a tenant for the space now occupied by The Alluvion. That performing arts space came to fruition thanks to a partnership between Commongrounds Cooperative, Jeff Haas, and Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology.

“The Alluvion is a piece of infrastructure that was identified as badly needed in this community,” Lutes says. “There was lots of community support behind it … It’s the image stakeholders had in mind, a space for young artists to grow, a space to establish artists and help them connect with new audiences. And it’s a place for our performing arts region to have a really new connective experience.”

The Missing Middle

The Alluvion represents “the missing middle” in Traverse City’s music and performing arts scene, a place where emerging and mid-career musicians could perform in an intimate setting—a place to better connect to the audience and a place to really showcase their talents.

“There is no other place like it,” says Matt McCalpin, a long-time musician who is also director of operations at The Alluvion. “There are some smaller venues in Traverse City but none that are focused on the music first and foremost.”

The sound, lights, acoustics, and ticketing operations all were designed with only one thing in mind: that intimate, powerful moment of connection between artist, crowd, and music. The audio, video, and lighting are integrated into the room to “really surround you and make you feel like everyone is sitting up front,” says McCalpin.

The space was designed so there is not a bad seat. The stage is modular and the seats are movable to accommodate a variety of performing arts events and screenings. The venue is neither too small—to make it unviable for artists and businesses—nor too large—where seats are disconnected physically from what’s happening.

There’s also a green room, a separate space from the performing area where arriving artists can relax or rehearse privately. The room has a beautiful view of the Boardman River, a kitchenette, and a bathroom and shower.

“It’s a place for artists to get hydrated and fed. You provide that kind of space to an artist, and when they step on stage, they are ready to go,” McCalpin says.

How It’s Going

Although open, The Alluvion is still in preview-series mode.

That preview began with a concert on April 14, a nod to the building’s address 414 E. Eighth St. Singer-songwriter May Erlewine—who was a consultant in the design of The Alluvion—and her band were joined by other special guests for the musical evening.

Other events have followed, including Parallel 45 Theatre reading series, a Boardman Review spring issue release party, and plenty of music, including high school jazz, chamber music, bluegrass, and acts such as Earth Radio, Medicinal Groove, and the Jeff Haas Trio.

A grand opening will occur sometime in the future. (No date has been set at the time of this story.) Meanwhile, the preview series will continue. This month’s highlights include the Kerrville Festival Songwriters On Tour, Aug. 18. Five award-winning songwriters from different regions will gather to share their gift of songcraft, including: Sav Buist (The Accidentals,) Jean Rohe, Sadie Gustafson-Zook, Kyle Rasche, and R.O.

Also coming this month is Robinson & Rohe, the following night, Aug. 19. The Brooklyn-based duo consists of songwriters Liam Robinson and Jean Rohe. The pair were brought together 15 years ago by their love of afternoon song-swaps, American folk ballads, and wordplay. Robinson will be on banjo, accordion, vocals; Rohe, guitar and vocals.

Going forward, the plan is for The Alluvion to be open regularly, not just on evenings and weekends, drawing local, regional, and national artists. McCalpin adds that the Alluvion is working to balance ticketed evening performances with free concerts, support for young and emerging artists, space to rent to local arts organizations, and other community arts uses.

“The response has been phenomenal so far,” McCalpin says. “It’s really interesting to watch people enter the space for the first time—they want to know when they can come back. ‘What do I need to do to be in the know and know what’s going on?’ It ends up being a very special experience. You won’t find this anywhere else in town.”

 

 Photo by Shawn Roach