Fishtown art space Highwire Gallery announces plans to close; Fire Museum Presents series halted indefinitely

Philly exhibition hub Highwire Gallery, home to the experimental and wonderfully strange Fire Museum Presents concert series, has just announced that it will ease operations at its 2040 Frankford Ave location, citing a substantial rent increase. It has no immediate plans to relocate.

Highwire Gallery is the home of Highwire Artists, Inc., a non-profit initiative centered around hosting artists who are fully responsible for the vision and operation of their work, from curating to collaboration and exhibition. Operating in Philadelphia for more than 25 years, largely without a permanent gallery space, the Highwire cooperative has consistently sought new and unconventional spaces in order to connect art with community. Highwire Gallery has  resided on Frankford Ave. since 2005.

The Fire Museum Presents series has been presenting eclectic sounds and events at Highwire Gallery since 2009. The series has staged more than 170 events focusing on experimental, psychedelic, “avant / world noise” music, and has featured incredibly dynamic musicians in jazz, funk, world music and more. Steven Tobin, curator of Fire Museum Presents, wrote in a newsletter email that the series is on hold beyond its current lineup.

“My gratitude goes out to the members of the gallery for allowing us to use their space – and at a price that allowed us to give 100% of the money made at the door to those performing,” Tobin writes. “Currently we are mulling over various possibilities as to our next move. I used to always admire the folks that ran regular event series, while thinking they were somewhat crazy for doing so. Now I know I was right.”

The series will continue through November 17th, with multiple performances at Highwire Gallery before it is set to close. Next up is Little Howlin’ Wolf, Mitch Esparza and N Colyar P on Wednesday, November 6 at 7:30pm. The performances will fuse blues, folk, calypso, electronic and more, and promises to be quite literally indefinable. Tickets are $6-$8. For more information click here.

See a full list of Fire Museum upcoming events here.