Niagara Street Industrial Heritage

Sugar City Arts Collaborative
1239 Niagara St.
, Buffalo, NY


Sugar City is Buffalo’s only legal, DIY, volunteer-run, all-ages performance venue. Accordingly, all events at Sugar City are drug and alcohol-free and end before 11pm. Our goal is to provide an alternative space to share and create art and community projects based on participatory culture and a do-it-together attitude. This organization focuses itself on the exhibition, performance, and creation of art for those who cannot obtain space from traditional sources. Events and initiatives include, but are not limited to music, films, poetry readings, a zine library, meeting space, art gallery, workshops, and more. We want to break down the barriers of what is and isn’t “art” because in some way everyone is an artist.
- About Sugar City (online September 2017)









Sugar City – a Buffalo, NY based DIY art collective has found a new home on Niagara Street after being displaced from its original stomping ground on Wadsworth Street in Allentown. This is very exciting news considering that the collective has had a tough time nailing down a suitable location – there were a couple of close calls, but nothing concrete. Now Sugar City will be situated in an area that is quickly coming back to life, along with a new gallery, a new brewery, pet services (more on that later), and additional news on the horizon.

With the help of Vision Niagara, a community group that is dedicated to seeing the rebirth of Niagara Street (from Busti Avenue to Scajaquada Creek) into a mixed bag of cultural and hospitality-based amenities, owner of 1239 Niagara Street, Bill Breeser, was able to make the pieces come together. It was Breeser who first helped to bring Riverkeeper to Niagara Street. After searching for a year and a half, Aimee Buyee (founder of Sugar City) identified the Niagara Street location, which was formerly Playaz Club, and Compton’s After Dark before that. Now the building will be home to a 170 person capacity art and performance center by early summer.

“We are looking forward to being part of the development of this corridor and to be neighbors with businesses like Santasiero’s, Community Beer Works and the new Resurgence Brewery, BT&C Gallery, Buffalo Riverkeeper, and more!” – Vision Niagara

- Queenseyes, A new day for Sugar City.  Buffalo Rising A new day for Sugar City  March 19, 2014  (online September 2017)
 

Special thanks to Cindy Gorski and Margaret Logan for sharing their research

Photos and their arrangement  © 2017 Chuck LaChiusa
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