Midtown Kingston

MIDTOWN & THE FUTURE OF ARTPORT KINGSTON

80 Smith Street

ArtPort Kingston is looking towards Kingston’s Midtown to establish a permanent location and expand their participation in the burgeoning city’s creative scene. 

ArtPort has purchased a lot at 80 Smith Street, currently the site of a decommissioned drive-through bank. 

Still early in the R&D stage, ArtPort’s directors are drawing inspiration from the DIY cultural spaces of late-20th century Berlin, where local creatives utilized simple materials to repurpose bombed-out industrial spaces into cafes, art venues, and social clubs. 

These spaces were art-works in action; they reinvented otherwise discarded spaces into beacons of new, imaginative life. 

Keeping to ArtPort Kingston’s aesthetic of accessibility and play, and their mission to curate the unconventional, 80 Smith Street will host private artist studios, a gallery space, as well as an expansive indoor/outdoor container village designed to integrate interactive art installations with experiences in cuisine, performances, parties, lectures, and more. 

The space will resist definition with its myriad, hybrid potentiality. 

Isn’t that just like ArtPort Kingston — hard to pin-down, constructively chaotic, and available for constant reimaginings.