Posted by Danielle Tjia ‘20 When walking down Beekman Street, a visitor might notice that each store offers an individualism that is hard to find elsewhere in Saratoga Springs! Some artists use "smaller houses" to display and sell their work in sight of passersby, while also using the back areas as a studio space. This concept of combining the front space with the back space is taken from the Italian immigrants who lived in the area beforehand and used their homes to create varieties of "mom and pop" stores or restaurants utilizing the front space for guests and the back space for residency. Cecilia Fritelli from the Textile Studio said that artists are "bringing that whole mixed use concept back." My project examines how the front display areas reflect this mixed use perspective at the Textile Studio, Plum and Crimson, and Little Darling Studios. The Art District community opens up their spaces and creates a welcoming feeling by placing sandwich boards outside their businesses and leaving lights on in their big windows. The community uses these styles of display to entice browsers to look at what the artists can do. This style of advertising is one way the community of Beekman Street comes together with the goal to offer a down to earth and accessible Arts District to the public. The three businesses I examined for my project have working areas or studios that connect to the front rooms, thereby integrating their skills while displaying their creative products. For example, the Textile Studio has three of their looms in the front space among the finished pieces, and they regularly use the looms while customers are browsing the store. Plum & Crimson keeps a table at the back of the front room, behind the couch and among the fabrics, to show their clients their ideas they have created for them. (Insert image 5) This concept opens up a creative process to customers, providing insight to how each artist works. This concept makes the environment of the space special in Saratoga Springs, and offers a calm homey feeling to the space. Despite the integration of the two spaces, the front spaces are nicely decorated and organized to display each person's craft and talent. Mannequins and racks demonstration how to wear sweaters and display the different styles offered at the Textile Studio. Plum and Crimson exhibits a potential layout of a living room complete with an amber colored chandelier, a sofa, and two armchairs. At Little Darling Studios, a room with a tattoo section in the corner and professional photos on the wall gives clients inspirations for selecting body art. These creative businesses all use of their front spaces to make them exciting and relatable to what they as artists have to offer. The Arts' District has maintained a long lasting practice of mixed use spaces and the strong community that has been on Beekman Street to make it a developing destination in Saratoga Springs!
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Posted by Jakob Roze '16 The Golden Tiger Tattoo shop is located on 78 Church Street in Saratoga Springs. Although not located in the “Arts District” of Saratoga, the Golden Tiger tattoo shop is a prominent member of the arts community on the West Side of Saratoga Springs. During my time at the shop, I encountered a friendly and comfortable environment in which the artists waved a sense of formal professionalism to provide genuineness. The shop welcomes people of all ages, from 18-year-olds to senior adults. Through observation and conversations, my time at the tattoo shop has given me a sense that the communication within the shop remains colloquial. The artists treat customers as their friends and this is one cultural features that seems to make the business successful. Each artist at the shop has their own unique way of talking and relating to customers. I have found that all artists play off of each other in casual conversation with clientele within the shop. The environment created by this is consequently an all-inclusive friendly environment by which the client feels a part of the culture. Being part of the immediate tattoo culture is carried out primarily by conversation and dialogue with the artists. The client soon becomes interwoven into the conversations occurring around them or with the artist and contributes their own two cents. The organic nature of all the conversations taking place between artists and between artists and clients makes the Golden Tiger Tattoo shop stand out in comparison to other body art settings where conversation is more limited.
Posted by Kayla Provencher '17 Located on 80 West Circular Street in Saratoga Springs, Needlewürks Custom Tattoos and Body Piercing is housed in a 101-year-old building that once was used as a loading station for the former Saratoga Springs trains. After many years of non use, the building has been repurposed and refurbished for the new, artistic tattoo and piercing parlor, owned by Paul Brumley. Needlewürks is home away from home to a community of artists of all ages and genders. However, while they may be different in terms of age and gender, the employees are responsible and drama-free and they dabble in some art medium outside the realm of piercing and tattooing. Some employees sketch, others paint and others play musical instruments, either solo or in a band. This collective love of art fosters an environment of respect between employees, in which they feel comfortable critiquing one another’s work and pushing each other to be better. As the community is made up of workers who are employees but also individual contractors of their own art, self-expression is of paramount importance, but there is still a cohesive look between the individual artists. The art environment the employees create within Needlewürks is casual and a little bit rebellious. Most male employees don jean jackets or plaid button ups, usually with slim jeans and bits of tattoos peaking from under their collars or sleeves. Female employees can be found in dress ranging from fishnet stockings with shorts and band tees to oversized jeans and t-shirts. Both genders make little effort to hide body art like tattoos or piercings. Behaviorally, there is little traditional “professional” structure in Needlewürks. Aside from the receptionist, nobody sits behind desks. Informal language, specifically cursing, is abundant and employees make themselves comfortable working long shifts together, sometimes clientless, by watching movies on the couch or bantering in the back rooms.
Outside the parlor, the employees of Needlewürks sometimes perform live art shows during concerts where they set up a blank canvas off to the side of the stage while a band is performing. Then, they’ll take out their drawing utensils and all begin working on the canvas, two to three artists at a time, until there’s one chaotic and disjointed, but beautiful, image at the end. Rather than keeping these murals, they usually raffle them off or give them away to friends. In one example given by a tattoo artist, the Needlewürks staff set up a canvas for a Skeletons in the Piano concert at Putnam Den, a local hangout off of Broadway, and performed an art show right on the side of the stage. Thus, Needlewürks is comprised of a group of artists who work both individually and together, and have created a community grounded in their shared respect for art. |
Student projects
Anthropology students present case studies based on projects about local people and places.
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