Story Time
I would like to begin by acknowledging that our story is 100% a testament of the grace of God. There is no other way to put it.
Time after time He has proven to us that walking on faith pays off, and I don’t mean that in a monetary way but in a rewarding way. God has found ways to reward us for having faith.
These rewards have been manifested in our lives in many different ways and the most obvious has been in the form of providing us with help and resources needed in order to achieve our studio’s mission, which is to be able to offer our community a space to connect with those around us in a deeper way through art.
How It Began
2016 South Bend, Indiana. USA.
The City of South Bend was undergoing a massive street renovation in its west side of town. The project aim was to help drive more traffic to the small businesses which populated the main street.
With new paved streets, new lamp posts, new stop lights and new sidewalks the west side of town was ready to celebrate its face-lift with a ribbon cutting ceremony which included street vendors, family friendly attractions and a pop-up art gallery as a way to cover up an abandoned store front where this event was to take place.
Event organizers reached out to Greg and I for volunteer help to be in charge of the pop-up art gallery setup.
We graciously agreed to volunteer and we quickly gathered a group of close friends and family who were willing to help us transform the abandoned store front into a pop-up art gallery.
The event organizers provided us with cleaning supplies and materials to clean out the venue. They also brought in three different paint colors: Caution Yellow, Handicapped Blue and White to paint the walls. That’s it. (Hence our branding colors)
Even though we did not have a budget per say, we did invest countless hours in moving old heavy furniture, cleaning floors and walls, trips to the store and painting the walls.
We took breaks to play and create with friends and family.
The walls were painted and we cleaned the venue as much as we possibly could.
We came up with the name ART GALLERY 2910 (2910 being the address) and we were ready for art, so we put a call for artists.
Having worked and partnered with various organizations in the city of South Bend, I was surrounded by a fantastic community of creatives that made it easier to gather artwork for the opening night.
The artwork started rolling in and it was a great feeling seeing all the artists happy to showcase their creations.
Opening Night
July 7th. 2016 South Bend, IN. USA
It’s opening night and the artwork is up and The City of South Bend has everything prepared for the ribbon cutting ceremony. The news just pulled up and houndreds of locals show up thanks for the TV and radio ads.
Everyone was in awe upon entering the transformed venue.
We featured over 30 different local and regional artists with live music.
Even the mayor and his partner showed up and we got to shake their hands.
The pop-up art gallery had become an experience in itself.
Locals begin encouraging us to keep the art up and make use of the great momentum to establish an actual art gallery that was very much needed in town.
We took the leap of faith and the rest is history!
After figuring out a “business plan”, we moved our studio to a better venue in the downtown area. Three years later we moved again to the Mishawaka shopping district which is where we currently host our paint parties.
We thank God and our wonderful community for the continued support and thank you for reading our story! 🙂