The Middletown location will be the fourth Pendleton Arts Center. Verdin founded the original in Over-the-Rhine in downtown Cincinnati 20 years ago.
“I bought a warehouse because it was cheap, but I didn’t know what to do with it,” he said. “An artist suggested that it would be a good place to have art studios, and that’s how it all started.
The Cincinnati Pendleton Arts Center contains 150 studios, and has been such a success in transforming the neighborhood around it, Verdin has since expanded to smaller but similarly structured facilities in Rising Sun, Ind., and Ashland, Ky.
The Broad Street location will open in April or May with 21 studios on the ground floor. Five of them have already been rented to a framer, a pair of woodworkers, a glass artist and four photographers who will share one of the larger spaces, according to marketing manager Suzanne Sizer.
Work will then proceed on the second floor and the basement, Verdin said, each with a similar number of studios.
Rent for studio space will range from $150 per month to $350 or $400 for some of the larger ones, with about a $250 average.
The idea behind the Pendelton Art Centers, Verdin said, is to give artists a chance to break out of their home studios, interact with other artists and to be able to sell their work at monthly open houses.
“It’s a chance for them to step up from being a hobbyist to being a professional,” he said. “If they’re good enough, they’ll sell their work. If not, they’ll go back to something else.”
At the Cincinnati location, he said, the Final Friday events have given art lovers a cheap — because there is no admission fee — and interesting place to go for a night out, and expects that Middletown’s First Fridays will be an instant success because there’s already a good support structure in place. Nearby restaurants and existing art galleries have already signed on to participate.
Middletown glass artist Stephanie Zing was one of the first to rent space in Middletown’s Pendleton, finding it more suitable to her needs than her current studio at the Oxford Community Arts Center.
“Because I work hot and that building is a historical structure, I’m not able to do have a kiln there,” she said. “I also want to be able to meet people and show them what I do, and the Pendleton does a great job of that.”
Hamilton painter and printmaker Ed Hester, who has a studio in the Over-the-Rhine location, said he’s a true believer in the Pendleton concept, having worked for a number of years in Woodstock, N.Y.
“I got turned on to the community sense of art at Woodstock and the Pendleton has given Cincinnati that same sensibility,” he said. “I get to go around and talk to everybody, see who’s doing what, and meet some wonderful artists.
“Even though artists are known to be individualists, there’s still something about having a community of artists. We encourage each other to do better.”
Even though the interior of the Broad Street location is little more than framed walls now, visitors got a sense of the size of the studios and a taste of the wares from the forthcoming All About You Cafe, owned by Melody Palmer, that will operate in the lobby selling homemade soups, sandwiches, salads and Palmer’s famous cake balls.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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