Arts & Entertainment
Founder of a Brooklyn Arts Center Inspires Community to be Creative
"I want to give community members an opportunity to meet their neighbors and to create a contagious cycle of people inspiring people," says LaunchPad Founder Mike Kunitzky
Through its large storefront window, the cream-colored walls of LaunchPad look like blank canvases.
Fittingly, canvas is exactly what founder Mike Kunitzky strives to provide. Founded in 2010, the community based arts center, located at 721 Franklin Avenue, has hosted an eclectic mix of events.
From yoga to photography exhibitions, a sewing collective to Thanksgiving dinner, LaunchPad's services are intentionally broad.
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“The goal is to create a community space where people can pursue their own concepts and familiarize the community with new ideas,” Kunitzky said, as he guided a paint roller along a fence picket.
It was a sunny Friday afternoon, and Kunitzky was in LaunchPad’s backyard working on the center’s latest project – a mammoth wooden fence that Kunitzky plans to have local artists turn into a mural.
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“I want to give community members an opportunity to meet their neighbors and to create a contagious cycle of people inspiring people,” he added.
Kunitzky, a Brooklyn resident, started LaunchPad after quitting his job in online marketing this past winter. Since then, LaunchPad has grown mostly by word of mouth.
“We don’t do any marketing. The whole thing has developed very organically,” Kunitzky said, attributing much of LaunchPad’s growth to the fact that the space is available for free.
“There is no shortage of attention for a free space in New York City,” he added, “But because the center is available for free, all events must be free for the public.”
And while Kunitzky’s open-door policy has attracted a lot of attention, funding a center that has no source of income has proven to be a struggle. Regardless, Kunitzky believes that keeping LaunchPad events free for the community is integral to the center’s mission.
“When I began, I knew that it was not going to be well funded,” Kunitzky confessed, as a large portion of LaunchPad’s budget came out of his own pocket. “But you only live once and this was something that I always wanted to do.”
Fortunately, with the help of a $6,000 kickstarter.com campaign and additional funding from a sponsorship program through the Brooklyn Arts Council, LaunchPad has managed to find a foothold.
“LaunchPad really represents the type of people who live here,” said Myk Freedman, a Brooklyn resident and a participant in LaunchPad's monthly music series Whippoorwill. “In New York, there are very few places like it.”
