RBAB2: 78th Street Studios

In Youngstown, we have a few enclaves of artists, the most well-known of which is the Artists of the Mahoning Commons in what is known as the old Ward Bakery building. The Artists of the Mahoning Commons have biannual open houses, which are well attended. The space is affordable–and scarce.

There are several other warehouse-type buildings that could serve as artist spaces, with galleries and studio lofts. As for what these spaces might aspire to be, Cleveland’s 78th Street Studios provides a potent model.

Billed as “West Side Cleveland’s Largest Arts Center” and located in the historic Detroit-Shoreway Neighborhood/Gordon Square Arts District (see yesterday’s post for more on Gordon Square), 78th Street Studios features three floors, plus a lower level, including studio space for architecture, sculpture, photography, painting, graphic design, publishing, recording and even concert management.

The Plain Dealer penned an article about the studios last year, which provides additional info:

“The 1905 freight elevator is fun to maintain,” [building owner Dan Bush] said slyly. And there’s always the joy of interacting with his stellar tenant roster — three galleries, seven artists, a fine-arts auctioneer, the Alternative Press Magazine staff, a concert management group and the musicians passing through the three recording studios. The first tenant moved in in 2001.

The building, which Bush calls The Studios at West 78th Street, handily shoved the western border of the Gordon Square Arts District on Cleveland’s near West Side about 10 blocks farther west.

And the arts district, already jazzed by the imminent groundbreaking for a $9 million Cedar Lee-type movie theater and the $7 million Near West Theatre for live performances, embraced Bush’s gerrymandering.

“We’ve been told by business leaders that they can’t recruit young professionals because Cleveland’s not hip,” arts district director Joy Roller said. “This will raise the hip quotient. This is a stretch of property where artists are going to want to live, work and play.”

I had the great pleasure of meeting sculptor Charmaine Spencer, who was also quoted in the article. First the art, then the quote.

Sculptor Charmaine Spencer also needs a lot of space for her abstract installation art, as well as the extra measure of safety she feels at The Studios. According to Tregoning, the neighborhood is in the second-safest police precinct in Cleveland.

“And no one complains when you’re hammering at 10 p.m., because we’re all hammering at 10 p.m.,” Spencer said.

She and Scheele are working on an on-site Development Center where artists can research grants and schmooze.

A self-described late bloomer, Spencer left her home in Ann Arbor, Mich., at age 30 to begin study at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She graduated in 2005.

“I have this belief,” she said, “that when you leave school as an artist, you leave your support system, too. A center that gives part of the system back is necessary.”

Charmaine’s studio was the last I visited before leaving the building. I saw one more piece of art by her door, which she had traded with another artist in exchange for a piece of hers. Stunning. The kind of beauty artists in a community bring to its people, along with the economic benefits of surrounding businesses and retail. What we can enjoy, the more we provide resources to artists and let them do their thing.

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