The following letter from Jason Goodman confirming that his financially beleaguered organization is shutting down was emailed to 3rd Ward instructors at 9:39 pm EDT.
From: 3rd Ward <help@3rdward.com>
Date: October 9, 2013 9:39:06 PM EDT
Subject: A Letter to Our Instructors
Reply-To: 3rd Ward <help@3rdward.com>Dear Instructors,
It is with heavy hearts that we are emailing you today to let you know that after seven wonderful years of serving our community, 3rd Ward is closing its doors.
When we opened in 2006, our vision was to create a shared space for our community of artists and entrepreneurs to have a place to work, teach, learn, network and thrive. We’re proud to have been able to do that for as long as we did. It would have been impossible without your commitment and efforts, and we thank you all.
Yet, with the costs of running and operating our two locations in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, we are sadly no longer able to remain in business.
We will cancel all sections in progress and future sections by the end of today. Students will receive a cancellation message from help@3rdward.com, and they can respond to that same email if they have any questions.
We want make sure that our instructors are able to collect their belongings before our doors officially close on October 11th, 2013. We will have open hours from 10am-6pm on this Thursday and Friday, and next week on Monday and Tuesday for you to pick up any of your materials. Additionally, we will be open from 9am-1pm this coming Saturday, and 12pm-4pm this coming Sunday.
Today is the last day that our Education team is working at 3rd Ward. They have calculated all instructor, TA, Art Model payments and transferred that information to the Finance department. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Nick Alexander at Nick@3rdward.com. As we are operating with limited staff, please understand that we will try to answer your email as quickly as possible, but your patience is appreciated.
All the best,
Jason Goodman
3rd Ward
what? so sudden, they just opened in Philly.
Haven’t been following 3rd Ward since around the time of its inception, and never had anything to do with it, so I have no particular insight into how it was run. But I’d be quite surprised if the autopsy reveals that Jason Goodman has a heart, heavy or otherwise. Details are murky, but the birth of 3rd Ward seems to have been financed by a lot of shady activity in the run up to the 1717 Troutman evictions, with some of the same actors involved. Having been the proprietor of an overnight-failed restaurant is undoubtedly adequate qualification for opening a pseudo-culinary school; the experience gained in bilking investors/staff is no doubt priceless. As for Jeremy Lovitt, the co-founder mentioned in the previous piece: last I’d heard he’d married into the Chinese mob and was “overseeing” workers at some mega-hotel in Macau or somewhere.