New York: State of the Arts
There’s always a bit of religious-like mysticism surrounding
the creation of artwork. But the reality of it is that it is work, it’s often messy, and, like most occupations, requires
time and space. But being holed up in your studio can get lonely, and many
artists who can afford an off-home, distraction-less, permanent creative space
prefer the community aspect offered by having their studio within a building
full of other studios, and other artists.
           Some
benefits to working in these creative hives include the fact that audiences are
often drawn by the opportunity to interact with a group of creative people,
especially during coordinated open-studio days. There are great potentials (and
challenges) when working within a community: inspiration, discussion, and
advice. While many artists feel that Rochester isn’t a great place for their
field of work, others argue that this city is a more affordable and viable
place to live as an artist than art meccas like New York
City, where artists are a dime a dozen, and it’s even tougher to make a name
for yourself.
           On that
note, here’s something to remember: people love having art around, but art
requires more of an audience than it often receives, especially in its
emerging, little-guy stages. I met many fascinating, talented, and motivated
people in researching this piece, and though these are brief vignettes of the
art studio spaces around town, I strongly advise that you check them out and
get to know the artists yourselves.
Artisan Works
565 Blossom Rd,
Suite L | 288-7170, artisanworks.net
This 60,000-square-foot facility has an overflowing
collection of every genre and medium of artwork you can fathom, including pieces
by famous artists, local working artists, and art students. Besides being a
contender for the largest local collection of art under (and on) one roof,
Artisan Works offers a variety of exhibitions, outreach programs, tours of the
massive collection, picture framing, event hosting, art restoration, and
appraisals. Surrounded by all of this creativity, there are about a dozen
artists who have their studios on site, including painters Mark Groaning and
Martine Lepore. Depending when you visit the rambling
warehouse, you might catch them at work.
Anderson
Alley
250 N Goodman St | andersonalleyartists.com
Of all the buildings housing scores of artists, this former
shoe factory has one of the most well organized collections of creative types,
though according to photographer Richard Margolis — who has been at Anderson
Alley for 15 years and helps facilitate the group — “getting 40 or 50 artists
to agree on anything is near impossible, like trying to herd cats.” The
Anderson Alley Artists have a website complete with an artist directory, and
the core group of participants who, for the past 12 years, have held regular
open-studio days on the second Saturday of most months, as well as other
seasonal events.
           Anderson
Alley artists work in paint, photography, fiber, pastels, ceramics, drawing,
textiles, weaving, book arts, and more. Weaver and textile artist Jan Hewitt Towsley says her studio “has provided the right mix of
public outreach, private work time, and interaction with other artists.” Towsley has had a studio at Anderson Alley for 21 years;
the first 19 solo, and the last two shared with studio mate Evelyn J. Kitson, who also works in textiles, weaving, photography,
jewelry, and more. Towsley says that many of the
artists “share ideas, as well as pool our resources for events and
advertising.” Kitson says, “It’s inspiring to check
in with other artists and see what they’re doing. It’s great to have a
community to refer to when problem solving.”
GeneseeCenter
for the Arts and Education
713 Monroe Ave | 244-1730, geneseearts.org
This multi-purpose community arts center resides in a
turn-of-the-century firehouse, and contains Genesee Pottery, the Community
Darkroom, Printing and Book Arts, and multiple studio, educational, and gallery
spaces. It’s also home to Absolute Yoga & Wellness, Soleil Bookbindery,
Studio 789, an after-school photo-club for city kids, and was the original home
of the Abundance Co-op Market. The Center provides access to art facilities and
education to community members, and has a variety of youth programs targeted
toward the under-served youth of the area. You can take classes with local
artists and artists-in-residence, check out ever-shifting art exhibitions, and
become a member to gain access to rentable studio spaces and to facilities
including pottery wheels, kiln firing, lighting and digital studios, darkrooms,
and letterpress, bookbinding, papermaking, marbling, and calligraphy amenities.
The Hungerford
1115 E Main St | 338-2269, maguirepropertiesinc.com
Before Main Street’s
Hungerford Art and BusinessPark
was redeveloped, it was a major manufacturing plant for flavored syrups. The
behemoth brick building has more than 100 studio spaces, with no exact count,
as they subdivide to suit the needs of the tenants. The winding, labyrinth-like
industrial space has an unfinished, taken-over feel to it, and is home to many
diverse artists as well as small businesses and non-profits, including
Rochester Indymedia and RochesterRegionalCommunityDesignCenter,
which holds programs about local community development and redesign. There are
also some lucky residents who’ve scored awesome loft apartments overlooking the
Goodman Street train yard.
           Dennis
Maguire of Maguire Properties, the company that redeveloped and owns the
building, says that the staff works hard “to create spaces that exactly fit the
artist’s requirements,” and support the interaction between those artists and
the community. Spaces are available for short-term use, including thesis shows,
and most recently, the one-month pop-up project by art collective The Sweet
Meat Co. The collective is comprised of painters,
graphic designers, and street artists, including Sarah Rutherford, Lea Rizzo,
St. Monci, Mr. Prvrt, and
Erich Lehman, who with guest artists Jordan C. Greenhalgh
and Anjolee Wolfe, rented a 2500-square-foot raw
space and completely rehabbed the place into an incredibly cohesive,
multi-media collaborative art installation in January 2010, using paint and
discarded objects found in the building.
           Also present
in the behemoth building is Crocus Clay Works, which functions both as a clay
studio and gallery, and is shared by clay artists Sabra
Wood, Marie Verlinde, and Jennifer Buckley. The trio hosts a different guest
artist each month on First Friday openings, and they also participates in
various Hungerford community activities, including periodically held mass open
studio days and the Zombie Walk in October, when families dress in their
necrotic best and stagger down to the Public Market to shop and scare.
CanalStreetBuilding
90 Canal St | 338-2269, maguirepropertiesinc.com
SoHoCenter on Canal
Street is another combination building owned by
Maguire Properties, with 25 studios and 51 apartments/working studios. Painter
Robert Frank Abplanalp’s place is a bona fide creative
lair, entirely customized with self-constructed spaces, and packed with
found-object and fashioned artifacts. Visitors to his loft wouldn’t doubt for a
second that they were standing in an artist’s dwelling. “My current residence
is good for a painter, because there are no rugs or floors that can be
significantly damaged. They can easily be painted over for the following
resident so I don’t have to worry about spilling or splattering paint,” he
says. “Some things that we don’t understand as a child make sense once we are
grown up, but even now I don’t really understand the rules of not marking the
walls. ” And that’s just his apartment. He also rents a small studio space on a
lower floor, which is lined with stacked canvases-in-progress of all sizes, in all
stages of completion.
           Of the
creative process, Abplanalp says, “It is sometimes
messy, sometimes violent, sometimes noisy — and often
times inappropriate for a residential space. These are reasons why creative
people need specialized spaces where they can feel very free to unleash
creativity without getting interrupted or in trouble.”
RochesterContemporaryArtCenter
137 East Ave | 461-2222, rochestercontemporary.org
Rochester Contemporary Art Center is doing great things for
the art scene of this city, functioning not only as a gallery space with
exhibitions of both established and emerging artists, but also as the
facilitator of the First Friday city-wide gallery nights. Above the gallery on East
Avenue are 10 studio spaces, four of which are
available for rent. Current tenants include watercolor and oil painters, a
web-design firm, and a one-person graphic design business. The downtown
location, amid cafes, the Little and the Eastman
theaters, and other cultural institutions, is “a great, active, pedestrian area
within a vital arts neighborhood,” says Director Bleu Cease. The smallish
spaces are best suited for quieter arts and commercial businesses. “Clean,
light studio practice: no welding or high noise,” says Cease.
           Studio
tenants are encouraged to participate in open-studio sessions during gallery
openings and First Friday events, and the public can visit the studios
upstairs. Cease says he has seen moments when the studios form a community and
goes beyond the built-in First Friday benefit: “Periodically, a renter synergy
occurs and they’ll band together, do cross-promotion and joint events.”
The Village Gate
274 N. Goodman St. | 442-9061, villagegatesqaure.com
The Village Gate Square
is a sprawling, diverse center in the heart of the Neighborhood of the Arts,
resembling an industrial mall, but one with soul. The converted factory is home
to popular restaurants like Salena’s and Lento,
businesses like the Bop Shop, book stores, the Image Out gay and lesbian film
festival headquarters, martial arts, dance, and yoga studios, office spaces,
loft residences, musicians, theater and comedy companies, and much more, as
well as a small handful of visual artists. Painter Juni
Moon recently moved out of her studio there, where she enjoyed the view of
Village Gate’s courtyard/sculpture park, the convenient access to sushi
downstairs, and the wonderful people she met by having a public space. Current
artists include the Weaving and FiberArtsCenter,
Sprouse Photographic, and painter Steve Carpenter,
whose studio is on the Anderson Alley side of the complex, and also houses the
New York Figure Study Guild.
This article appears in Mar 17-23, 2010.
