Twin Cities Pride’s new space in downtown Minneapolis allows the organization to provide safe haven to the LGBTQ+ community during a critical time.
About 400 people attended an open house over the weekend for the Pride Cultural Arts Center, which now houses the nonprofit’s Artist in Residence and Rainbow Wardrobe programs. There’s also a flexible area for community gatherings and workshops, including pay-what-you-can ASL classes with Minnesota Deaf Queers, as well as a gallery for displaying artists’ work.
Given the current political climate, it’s especially important to maintain physical spaces where LGBTQ+ folks can be the truest version of themselves, Twin Cities Pride’s director of programming Kelsey Alto told Downtown Voices.
Many opponents of President Donald Trump fear his administration will reverse protections for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender people, and criminalize gender non-conformity.
The goal of the Artist in Residence program is to amplify local LGBTQ+ artists through Twin Cities Pride initiatives. The program typically accepts two or three artists each year and runs annually from January through December.
This year’s cohort is composed of five artists: Dobbs DeCorsey, Mikha Dominguez, Morgan LaCasse, Maddie Stumbaugh, and Kevin Zaid Martinez.
The 6,000-square-foot Pride Cultural Arts Center is spacious enough to accommodate individual art studios for the Artist in Residence program, a luxury that Twin Cities Pride’s other space couldn’t accommodate.
During tumultuous times, the act of creating art can be incredibly therapeutic and empowering. Alto points out that some of the most important art came from the darkest moments in humanity.
Rainbow Wardrobe offers gender-affirming clothing, including chest binders, tucking underwear, and packers, to transgender and non-binary folks at no cost.
Rainbow Wardrobe was previously crammed into the basement of Twin Cities Pride’s headquarters in the Loring Corners building. Its new digs at the Pride Cultural Arts Center are bigger, accessible, and outfitted with fixtures found in most clothing stores.
Twin Cities Pride quickly outgrew its Loring Corners office after moving in two years ago, Alto said, and the organization needed more room for programming beyond its annual Pride festival and parade. That’s why the nonprofit applied for the new space, though it plans to maintain its headquarters at Loring Corners too.
Twin Cities Pride is among five local, art-adjacent groups chosen to fill vacant storefronts on the Downtown West-Loring Park border as part of the City’s inaugural Arts & Culture Vibrant Storefronts initiative. Twin Cities Pride will receive $50,000 annually to subsidize rent in its new space for the next two years.
Two other recipients have already opened their doors: Black Business Enterprises and Blackbird Revolt, both in the Harmon Court building at 1128 Harmon Place.
Flavor World’s creative hub at 1218 Harmon Place and Skntones’ clothing-design studio at 1227 Hennepin Ave. are set to open in April.
Twin Cities Pride recently raised more than $100,000 through an online fundraiser – twice as much as its goal – to fill a gap in funding following the organization's decision to drop Target as a longtime sponsor of its festival and parade. The move was prompted by Target’s pullback on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, many of which were enacted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
“I think that, for us, seeing the power of the community come together has been the uplifting push that we needed right now,” Alto said.
The 2025 Twin Cities Pride Festival will take place June 28 and 29 in Loring Park, with a community-driven art installation in the space where Target used to be.
The Pride Cultural Center is located at 1201 Harmon Place, a former Aveda salon, where it’s open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
