AKRON, Ohio – A new art gallery, Forever Changes, will open in May at 35 S. Main St. in downtown Akron.
The gallery is located inside of creative agency Art x Love’s new studio. Forever Changes will offer local artists a place to exhibit and sell their work. Gallery admission will be free for community members.
Art x Love owners Mac and Allyse Love have provided art planning services for clients for years, including creating menus of local artists and their work samples and commissioning original art for clients’ workspaces and homes. Since 2017, the husband/wife team has worked with more than 300 local artists on a wide range of projects, according to Mac Love.
Forever Changes is the next step the Loves are taking to provide opportunities for local artists.
“We’re developing Forever Changes as a place where people, artists, and opportunities can connect. Visitors will gain a real sense of our region’s diverse and amazing talent, and see work from the fringe to the mainstream of our creative community. Forever Changes is a place that will be forever changing,” Mac Love told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
The gallery spans 3,000 square feet and will have enough space for 20-40 artists initially, according to Allyse Love. Later, mobile walls will be added to improve display flexibility and to accommodate the work of more artists.
“The windows to the left side of the front entrance is where my workspace is. So I will be actively painting and making things in the windows. Hence some of the name inspiration–Forever Changes,” Mac Love said. “We wanted to kind of demystify the making of artwork a little bit. And for people who come to downtown Akron, hopefully they can come by and just see, you know, murals and commissions at work. You know, something starting off as nothing and turning into something beautiful.”
Participating in exhibitions and gaining exposure can be cost-prohibitive for up-and-coming artists, according to Allyse Love. To help with this barrier, Forever Changes offers artists two commission structures:
- Artists can pay either $150 per month for a 32 square-foot gallery space or $250 per month for a 64 square-foot area. There will be no gallery commission, which means that 100 percent of sales will go directly to the artist.
- Alternatively, artists can apply to be considered for a free month-to-month display. Under this structure, there will be a 30 percent gallery commission on sales.
“The entire model is set up for a lot of artists who don’t necessarily know what to charge for their work or want to get feedback or learn from the market,” Allyse Love said. “You know–what people like, what people want to see, to have a process, be able to grow their business, grow their practice.”
Forever Changes also seeks to make owning original art accessible for community members.
“We know a lot of people who want to own something authentic, original, handmade, to support a local artist, and this will be a place where I think they’re going to discover a lot of people who they might not be familiar with who have a really beautiful craft and a beautiful practice and way of looking at the world,” Mac Love said. “I think it will make a big difference in their lives when they bring it home.”
Right now, the studio is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. Once the gallery opens, the Loves are considering having hours one or two evenings per week or maybe part of the weekend. Art x Love will post the gallery opening date and hours on its Facebook and Instagram channels in the coming weeks.
Artists interested in exhibiting their ready-to-hang work at the gallery can email contact@artxlove.com.
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