Have you ever wanted to make a bowl out of a lump of clay, paint a picture or develop photos from film, but lacked the space to do it at home?
Unless you’re a professional artist, the chances are that without the space to create something in your own home, your artistic dreams went unrealized.
Art hangs on a wall of the Von Hellener Gallery inside The Art Establishment in Fountain Hill.
Now, if you are fortunate enough to live near Fountain Hill, they don’t have to be, thanks to The Art Establishment.
“We are a drop-in studio, offering professional grade equipment and studio space to the amateur artist. And we do this on a very affordable hourly basis, with no memberships required,” the About Us page on The Art Establishment’s website proclaims. “Just walk in, relax, and create a masterpiece!”
Located at 945 Broadway in the 100-year-old Chipman Knitting Mill, The Art Establishment also houses a gallery and offers classes in a variety of artforms.
But first and foremost, it was envisioned by owners Tom and Ellen Flynn as a place that will encourage more people from the surrounding community to get involved with art by making it convenient to do so.
Tom recalled that when he lived in an apartment, “every place that I could go to paint required taking classes.”
Ellen wanted to pursue photography, but they didn’t have room for a darkroom in their home, and she didn’t want to expose their kids to the potentially toxic chemicals used in the film development process.
Tom and Ellen Flynn are the owners of The Art Establishment in Fountain Hill. The business provides both workspace anc classes for amateur artists.
“I thought it would be great if there were a place where artists could just go and create,” Tom said.
The Flynns, who live in Fountain Hill, began to look for a location in which to open the kind of place they had dreamed of several years ago.
Eventually they settled on the former textile mill, which was a satellite factory for Chipman Knitting Mills and a major producer of socks for World War I soldiers.
They purchased the vacant property–which had last been used as a print shop–in September 2012, and began a thoughtful renovation that included exposing massive stone walls in its high-ceilinged basement, refinishing hardwood floors on the main level and brightening exposed interior brick walls with white paint.
A freight elevator cab in the former Fountain Hill textile mill has become a shadow box used to display ceramic works of art.
Some industrial remnants have even been adaptively reused. Today, for example, the former freight elevator cab at the back of the building functions as a shadow box for ceramics in The Art Establishment’s Von Hellener Gallery, which showcases works by the studio’s eight instructors in drawing, painting, pottery, cartooning, printmaking, photography, color theory and mixed media.
The Art Establishment officially opened to the public on March 10, toward the end of a long winter, and since then there’s been a gradual influx of curious visitors into the building, the Flynns said.
“We thought if we build it, they will come,” Ellen explained.
And its location is a good one for being discovered by first-time visitors, Tom noted.
It’s on a busy street in an urban area, and it’s close to the burgeoning South Bethlehem arts scene, which includes the Banana Factory, several private galleries, Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University and the ArtsQuest/SteelStacks complex.
Many of Southside Bethlehem’s arts attractions are highlighted during the Downtown Bethlehem Association’s monthly “First Friday” event, and the Flynns are planning to connect with the first First Friday of 2015.
The public is invited to attend “First Friday Too,” which will be held at The Art Establishment Friday, May from 7 to 10 p.m.
First Friday Too will feature live music by the Lehigh Valley band Broski, art demos by some of the studio’s instructors, food, wine and door prizes (including two one-hour private art lessons, a piece of ceramic art by Jenn Schilling Horvath, a matted print by printmaker Deb Hamburger and a $25 studio gift certificate).
Registration for First Friday Too is available on a Facebook event page.
The Art Establishment is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 9 p.m.
Prices vary by the type of art one will be making. The rental fee for use of one of their eight by 13-foot drawing/painting studio spaces is $5 per hour, for example. There is also a “Studio Pass” discount available: $30 of studio time for $25; $60 of studio time for $50; or $125 of studio time for $100.
There are no membership fees, leases or commitments for any of the studio rentals.
In addition to Facebook, The Art Establishment can be followed on Instagram and Twitter.
Anyone interested in learning more can also call (610) 807-9201 or email th************************@gm***.com, or complete an online contact form here.
The Art Establishment is a new studio for amateur artists located at 945 Broadway in Fountain Hill. Classes are offered in addition to studio rental space.
The darkroom in The Art Establishment is used for film developing.
Refinished wood floors gleam inside The Art Establishment in Fountain Hill. The studio for amateur artists is housed in a former textile mill on Broadway.
New pottery wheels are ready for use inside The Art Establishment in Fountain Hill.
An elevator lift inside The Art Establishment in Fountain Hill still bears lettering from when it was used by the Chipman Knitting Mill decades ago.
A stone wall in the basement studio of The Art Establishment was restored during the renovations of the building.
