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The Des Moines Social Club will be an arts venue, a place for people to learn, to congregate and to dine – a community center, with something for everyone.

“Every group can come; it is low cost – it is like the YMCA, but without the gym,” said Zachary Mannheimer, artistic director and restaurant manager for the Des Moines Social Club and president and CEO of The Subjective Theatre Company of Des Moines Inc., (STCDSM) an Iowa nonprofit corporation.

As a project of the STCDSM, the Des Moines Social Club will have five parts: a restaurant, tapas and wine bar called The Actress and The Bishop, a flexible arts venue (The Subjective Theatre), an educational program called The Department of Play, a permanent visual art gallery and banquet hall, and space for offices, rehearsals, classes and storage.

“It will be a community venue … people can come for a drink, for a show, for dinner … there will be something for all of them there,” Mannheimer said.

How it will work

The Des Moines Social Club, the group said, will be the first American institution of this scale to be a self-sufficient artistic center that will not sell its art.

“We believe art should be free,” Mannheimer said. “We have to sell something, but we will never sell our art.”

When art is sold and ticket prices are raised to make a profit, the art then becomes something only for the elite and serves a specific class, he said. All meals, tickets and classes will cost less than $20.

The business model for the Des Moines Social Club is designed so that art will not be sold, but still allow the organization to become self-sufficient by its third year of operation. Though the theater, classes and art portions of the project will be not-for-profit, the restaurant will be for-profit and will support the other operations.

“The mission is unique … every dime goes to support the space, and the artists are paid,” Mannheimer said.

The restaurant will pay a competitive rent to STCDSM, provide employment opportunities, attract customers and contribute a portion of its annual net profits to the STCDSM. All net profits received by The Subjective Theater will be allocated toward paying production expenses, utilities, salaries and all other costs involved in running the space.

The actors performing with The Subjective Theater will be the servers in the restaurant. After the performances, the crowd and the actors can all go to the restaurant and pub and participate in discussions and form relationships.

“Art is a catalyst; it starts discussion,” Mannheimer said.

The venue

The Des Moines Social Club is slated to be located at 1408 Locust St. The organization is working with developer Jack Hatch in negotiating a lease-to-own agreement as well as an agreement to purchase the historic building. Mannheimer expects that an agreement will be reached by June 1 and hopes to begin construction around July 1.

He said the project will add to the Western Gateway area and help make it “what it should be – a cultural district.”

Signs advertising the shows and performances will run vertically on the west side of the building, on display for the one-way flow of traffic on Locust Street.

The venue will have roof gardens for dining and outdoor movies in the summer. Along with the gardens, plans also show windmills on top of the building. Mannheimer said they are going to try to make the building Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified.

The windows on the front, or north side, of the building will show what is happening inside the Des Moines Social Club, and therefore, the view will always be changing.

Inside the building will be a “black box” theater, with no set, which will allow the area to easily adapt to any variety of performance from a play to music or the spoken word. The Subjective Theater will do approximately three performances a year; the space can be rented out the rest of the time.

The restaurant – The Actress and The Bishop – will have two different sections and styles. The Actress will be pub-style, with booths, a bar and game tables (pool, Foosball). The Bishop will have a fine dining menu and be located on the mezzanine. Mannheimer said The Bishop would be “the fanciest in town,” but all menu items are to be priced under $20.

The restaurant will feature food with a European influence made with Iowa ingredients. But not just the food will come from Iowa.

“All the furnishings, from the tables to the spoons, will have been made by Iowa craftsmen,” Mannheimer said.

The building will also hold offices, classrooms, a scene shop and a banquet hall/art gallery (where parties and weddings can be hosted).

“Corporations can come for parties and get a meal and a show in one place,” he said.

Mannheimer said the group hopes to collaborate with local education institutions to offer GED and English as a Second Language classes, along with community classes on subjects from cuisine to dance. If a class is not offered and someone has a desire to learn, Mannheimer said, they will find someone to teach the class.

Why Des Moines?

Mannheimer, who moved to Greater Des Moines from New York last fall, sought out a place to build this nonprofit concept.

“Des Moines is the right size where someone can really make an impact,” he said.

The project will help build community and retain artists. Rather than needing to move away to one of the coasts, their careers can grow here in Central Iowa. It could also help build economic status and arts because artists can stay and produce here, Mannheimer said.

The project will bring 50 new jobs to the Western Gateway area.

Word about the group is spreading; Mannheimer has already been contacted by seven artists who moved away from Iowa and are now living in various places such as Los Angeles, Boston and New York City, about the project. Two artists, including Julie Betts (the managing director and movement director at the Des Moines Social Club) already have plans to move back.

The promoters hope to attract performers from around the country and the world, but also provide a venue for local artists to perform.

Mannheimer said they want to work in conjunction with and support other local arts groups. The Des Moines Social Club is a complement to the other venues in the area and will promote their agendas, he said.

Theater…for a Change is a resident theater company along with The Subjective Theater. The group has also partnered with Core Magazine, which will have office space in the building and teach journalism courses there.

Subjective Circus

The project is scheduled to be up and running next spring, but the group is already hosting an event. On May 10, the Des Moines Social Club will present The Subjective Circus at 1408 Locust St. from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.; doors open at 7 p.m.

The event will be “kid friendly” until 9 p.m. and costs $15 at the door. All proceeds will benefit the construction of the Des Moines Social Club.

The circus will have everything from cotton candy to a ringmaster. There will be more than 20 performances, including fire spinning, acrobats, neon hula hoop artists and bands.

Thirty people have been working on the project full time. Circus committee members range from 16 to 62 years old; about half are artists by profession, and the others are just looking to get involved.

Individuals and companies are also involved through the Des Moines Social Club’s board of directors, board of advisers (see chart) and the possibility of corporate pledges as shown in the project’s business plan.

The Des Moines Social Club is also offering name recognition opportunities, ranging from $1.5 million for the Black Box Theater to $50,000 for each of the tables and booths at The Actress and The Bishop.

“It will be Iowa money and Iowa people,” Mannheimer said. “People will feel like this is their space.”

For more information on the Des Moines Social Club, go to www.desmoinessocialclub.org.