One night, my friends and I were hanging out, drinking some beers, when we came up with a pretty simple idea: why not pool our artwork together and throw a gallery party at my house? It was mainly just an excuse to get together and drink more beer. But as we talked, we realized that a lot of people were into it, and we might actually be onto something cool.
After some brainstorming, we figured we needed a bigger space than just someone’s living room. While driving through the neighborhood one evening, we spotted an old, abandoned church with a "For Sale" sign. On a whim, we decided to check it out, and surprisingly, it wasn’t in bad shape at all. We reached out to the realty group, pitched the idea of using the church for our art show, and offered to clean it up in exchange. They were cool with it as long as we did it by the book.
We were totally clueless about what throwing an event entailed. We had to become an LLC, get permits, and figure out all the legal stuff, which was a steep learning curve. But we made it fun. We relied on volunteers to help clean the church, which was over 100 years old and had years of dust and grime. Seriously, we joked that we were probably inhaling enough dust to end up with black lung, even through our masks. There wasn’t any plumbing or A/C. No problem, winter was only approaching in a few months…
As things started coming together, we began to get sponsors interested. We figured we’d need food and drinks for the event, right? So, we reached out all over town, and before we knew it, multiple restaurants and breweries were eager to donate food and drink. Art supply stores chipped in too, and Home Depot donated wood and materials for building standing walls. It was unreal how the community came together.
While we had our own art to hang, I wanted to do something a little different. I contacted some friends to arrange live graffiti during the show, which garnered a lot of interest. We also placed an ad in a local art magazine inviting artists to submit their work, and more than a dozen submitted their pieces.
On the night of the show, we had local DJs step up to take care of our music. We had transformed the church into a gallery, hung up art, and set up multiple food and drink stations. We even had heated port-a-potties outside!
The turnout was fantastic. People dressed up and filled the space, and the atmosphere was pure vibes. The highlight of the night was when we presented a check to a local school for their art department, which had previously been working with a budget of $0. Knowing that the proceeds would help fund their art programs made it all worth it.
After that first show, we couldn’t wait to plan the next one. Our second event, called Skindeep, took place in an abandoned flower plant that had been converted into a grocery store. We set up a similar deal—clean the place up in exchange for the space. This time, we included live body painting and set up a VIP sponsor area, bringing on SmartFurniture as a sponsor, which felt a bit over the top, but whatever.
That show drew in over 600 people and raised a significant amount for local schools and their art programs. Each event not only brought the community together but also solidified our commitment to supporting the next generation of artists. What started as a simple idea turned into something much bigger, and it was incredibly rewarding to see the impact we were making.
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This was the warehouse when we started.
