HOWARD - When your Cup O Joy runneth over with concertgoers, it's time to get a bigger cup.
For the second time in its 30-year history, Cup O Joy plans to relocate to have enough room for its Friday and Saturday concert schedule. The organization that runs the affordable, family-friendly venue bought the former Northeast Wisconsin Masonic Center at 525 N. Taylor St. last month and is in the midst a $3.2 million fundraising campaign to pay for renovations and long-term operations.
Jan Oettinger, Cup O Joy's director, said the group has been in its current home at 232 S. Broadway for 20 years. It sought a new, larger home for its concerts for eight years, but available spaces either didn't have parking or would have required a more extensive build-out to host live music.
The Taylor Street building — home to the Northeast Wisconsin Masonic Center from when it was built in the late 1970s — offered not one, but two performance halls, one with room for 200 people, the other with room for 500. It also has enough room in the basement for artist prep, storage, meetings and community events such as master classes that performers hold for local schoolchildren, Oettinger said.
"We are super excited," she said. "We knew this was the place where we could serve the community for years to come."
"This was a very unusual building in that the top floor is all ready for performance," she said. "This was a miracle find."
The building has its own parking lot, is located near a hotel and has easy access to Interstate 41, which is important because 30 percent of Cup O Joy's audience travels from more than 20 miles away.
The building does need some cosmetic upgrades and improvements, though.
Cup O Joy has raised about $1 million of its $3.2 million goal. It used the money to pay for the building and contractors who will start interior demolition this fall. Once a few walls are removed and some interior finishes taken down, the group plans to install a new roof, add Americans with Disability Act-compliant bathrooms, build a concessions area and install equipment needed for concerts.
Renovations should start by December, and Oettinger expects the new venue to host its first shows between April and June 2020. Until then, Cup O Joy will continue to host shows at its South Broadway home since 1999.
While important to the venue's next 30 years, the move to Taylor Street will be bittersweet for Oettinger and the Cup O Joy crew. They have offered free live music in the Broadway district for 30 years, a run that began when Broadway did not play host to many family-friendly events or cultural gatherings.
"We feel like we're part of the Broadway community. We were there long before it was the wonderful place it is now," Oettinger said. "Broadway will continue to be a great place."
Streetwise is Press-Gazette business reporter Jeff Bollier. Got a question or tip? Contact Jeff at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @GBstreetwise.
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October 22, 2019 at 04:22AM
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Streetwise: Cup O Joy live music venue plans to expand, move off Broadway - Green Bay Press Gazette
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