For a developing artist short on dollars and big on dreams, it can be a tough road to success. Inspiration can only get you so far, and looking for the right place to create can often be a problem for potters, jewelers, painters, sculptors, and other artists who need a workshop. For those who work out of their home, the artwork begins to pile up and clutter the living room or the kitchen. It gets to be a little overwhelming.

Fortunately, there’s a new building for working artists opening up at 591 North Main Street, just past the KARE house where Country Critters used to operate. It’s called North Main Street Studios and Gallery.

Tonya and Stephen Savage, a Maggie Valley couple, decided to provide a co-op building to rent space out to local artists who need a place to create and display their work. The upstairs and part of the downstairs will be devoted to workshop space, and an area of the downstairs will serve as a gallery where the artists can sell their work.

The Savages got the idea of starting a co-op for artists while living in Raleigh. Stephen, who is originally from Raleigh, got involved in an artists co-op there and thought it was the perfect idea to unite artists while at the same time have his own space to paint, work on collages, and create specialized prints. Tonya, meanwhile, makes glass mosaics, a craft she studied while living in Raleigh.

And when they both decided to return to Western North Carolina, where they first met, the Savages found just the right spot.

“We know it’s super-hard to get started,” Tonya said, so a co-op gives artists a little extra help.
The idea is that 10 people working together will have a better chance of putting on a gallery show than one person working alone, she added.

So for a negotiated price, an artist can have his or her own working studio just a few blocks down from a host of consignment galleries in an arts-friendly small town environment. The plan is to get a year lease commitment from an artist, but that’s all negotiable. Once the Savages have a few artists in place, they will all work as a team to make decisions about the building and how it will be set up to accommodate incoming artists.

While the goal of the gallery is to display artwork made by the artists who work at North Main Studios, there will also be some consignment pieces to enhance the gallery.

“We’re not out to make a million dollars,” Stephen said. As long as the building can sustain itself, then it will serve its purpose, he explained. “It’s a really good opportunity for start-ups.”

The Savages will draw on the growing number of local craft students such as the ones involved in Haywood Community College’s Production Crafts Program. Also, Tonya has been going around to area galleries in Asheville, Waynesville, and Dillsboro alking to local artists and people in the know and trying to get ideas and information that will help North Main Studios get the word out about its available space.

For more information about North Main Studios and Gallery, call 828.926.5234.

 

Back to Top

The Smoky Mountain News