Minneapolis music hub Hook & Ladder sounds a financial alarm

One of Minneapolis’ best-loved music venues and a community center of sorts for the East Lake Street area, the Hook & Ladder is sounding the alarm over its troubled financial state.

The nonprofit performance facility announced Thursday an emergency fundraising campaign for the month of October to “keep the lights on and the stage alive.”

“Without immediate support, our doors could close,” reads a post on the Hook & Ladder’s social media pages linking to the new fundraiser on the Give to the Max website, givemn.org.

“For nearly a decade, the Hook & Ladder Theater has been more than a venue — it’s been a home for live performance, creativity and connection. … But today, the Hook faces one of its biggest challenges yet. Rising costs, declining ticket sales, and shifting audience habits now put this vital community space at risk.”

The campaign aims to raise $75,000 by Oct. 31. As of Friday morning, $3,037 had been raised from 51 donors.

Housed in a historic firehouse near the intersection of Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenue, the Hook & Ladder is run by a nonprofit organization named the Firehouse Performing Arts Center (FPAC). In addition to its main theater, which can hold around 300 people, the venue operates the smaller Mission Room performance space, the cannabis/video-game lounge Zen Arcade and an outdoor stage in a converted parking lot where its Under the Canopy concerts are held in summer.

Those Under the Canopy concerts — launched in 2021 to give out-of-work musicians a safely distanced place to perform — were one of several ways the Hook served its reeling community in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the riots following George Floyd’s murder. The Third Precinct police station next door to the Hook was torched in the rioting, but the venue itself came out relatively unscathed.

Following Thursday’s posts, Mozena reiterated those aforementioned challenges but added, “There was also the loss of some critical annual foundation support.

“We have a successful track record of pivoting when needed and meeting challenges of the day head-on,” Mozena said Friday. “With the help of our community, we don’t expect this challenge to be any different.”

While there were signs of a strong rebirth following the riots in 2020, the area of E. Lake Street near the Hook & Ladder has seen some other popular businesses close over the past year, including Lagniappe restaurant, Du Nord Cocktail Room and nationally renowned vinyl shop Hymie’s Records.

But the Hook has persisted. Alongside the Under the Canopy concerts, the venue hosts such annual nonprofit events as the Soul of Southside Juneteenth bash, the Roots, Rock & Deep Blues Festival, the Morel Feast Fundraiser, community radio station KFAI’s birthday parties and various Pride parties.

Some of the upcoming events in the Hook’s theater space include: tour stops this week by rootsy musicians Davy Knowles and Eilen Jewell; the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice’s drag cabaret fundraiser on Oct. 9; the Big Fat Love tribute to John Prine on Oct. 10; the Belfast Cowboys’ pre-Thanksgiving benefit for Foothold Twin Cities on Nov. 8, and a costume party with the New Orleans Suspects on Halloween night, the day this financial campaign is slated to end.