Management at the Central City art house known as the Big Top announced this week that they will be closing their doors for good this month, despite rapid economic development in its Central City neighborhood that’s positioned between the downtown Central Business District (CBD) and the uptown Garden District. The Three Ring Circus collective founded the art gallery and community multi-media space at 1638 Clio Street more than 10 years ago, and has hosted everything from art exhibits and music concerts to small theatre plays and educational workshops. Its lights will go dark after this weekend’s closing events on Friday and Saturday, November 22-23.

The Big Top was one of the first spaces to open for business in that neighborhood, when few others were interested in setting up shop there in the early 2000’s. Though the Big Top is a non-profit organization, the space was rented out regularly for private events and an array of programs. One of the unique aspects of their programming was the offering of all-ages community arts activities. It also served as an incubator for some of the city’s cutting-edge theatre troupes and progressive Mardi Gras krewes. And at some point, the famous international graffiti artist Banksy stopped by Big Top’s block and left one of his signature paintings on the wall of the building directly across the street — a painting that is now protected behind a plexi-glass sheath so that passersby cannot alter or destroy it. The gallery soon became “that place with the Banksy on the wall across the street.”

In fact, the entire Central City neighborhood surrounding and further west of the Big Top’s humble storefront has been attracting a bevy of new arts and culture developments, with new businesses and even a culinary museum going in a few blocks away. The neighborhood’s resurgence perhaps makes the closing of one of the neighborhood’s first beacons of light in several years all the more somber. Sources reported to the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans that the building in which the Big Top is housed sold in April of this year to a developer who reportedly intends to open a “gallery row” close to the now-burgeoning O.C. Haley Boulevard (formerly Dryades Street).

The Big Top is not going out without a bang though; this weekend the Three Ring Circus will host two closing events, both open to the public, at their space at 1638 Clio Street. “The End of An Era Party” on Friday night, November 22, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. features live music by Narcissy and the Stacks, a silent auction, and more. Then on Saturday, November 23, the space will hold a “Garage Sale” where furniture, fixtures and other goods will be sold from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. Both events are intended to help relieve the Big Top / Three Ring’s debt. Recent shows and program information can still be found on the Big Top website: www.3rcp.com.