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 Samantha Mackertich ‘20 Crystal Cobert’s skin-therapy spa, FACES on Beekman Street, is located at the southern end of the current boundaries of the Arts District. The bustling building at 30 Beekman Street includes three businesses on the ground floor: FACES as well as Little Darlings Tattoo/Photography Studio and the Loft Blow Dry Bar. Two apartments occupy the second floor. Despite not being a fine artist, Crystal manages her skin therapy business as a very involved participant in the Arts District. Crystal believes that “People on this street tend to want to do things a little bit differently…that’s why we come here. If I wanted to be a spa like Aveda, I’d be on Broadway”. Beekman Street is a community, and according to Crystal, “All the businesses on this street are desperately trying to support each other.” One aspect of that support is how she works to include products and displays reflecting the creativity of the Arts District. Outward decoration—particularly on porches—conveys the neighborhood history and community values. As a residential area with a history of being settled by immigrants, money has always been tight, and porches have been a staple part of the architecture and the community (Living Places 2018). The porches are the connection to the community and street, as the roads are narrow, and people can sit out and see and chat with one another. Also, in during an earlier era without air conditioning, access to cooler outside air was critical. Crystal said that the porches remind her of New Orleans and are part of what drew her to the Arts District. Porches are symbolic of community and the heritage of the area. The outdoor décor and architecture of FACES on Beekman Street connects them to a neighborhoods deeper history of art and community. Decoration is how Crystal displays her values and services in her business. Her affinity for local, handmade, and organic products and art is evident through her shop’s décor. Crystal is currently transitioning her skin-therapy spa to become more of a ‘spa-tique,’ which will include more walk-in hours and opportunities to sell skin products as well as local art. The artists and business owners all work together to create this culture of support and exchange. Crystal not only displays her own values and tastes in the products and art she exhibits, but also supports her community and local artisans. Crystal works to bring together physical comfort with emotional comforting, and she believes “A lot of the healing that takes place here isn’t something you can see…it’s a self-esteem issue.” The decoration and personalization of the space embodies the holistic view of the person who creates it: Crystal. The space evokes a natural, holistic, and community-centred ambiance through its local art, floral designs, ethically-conscious products, and handmade statement pieces, such as the large wooden doors that separate the front room from the treatment room. The homey décor, such as the floral couches and plush rugs, are meant to enhance the comfortable atmosphere, similar to visiting the home of a close friend. In these ways, Crystal uses decoration and use of physical space at FACES on Beekman Street to convey the values and services relevant to the business and to the community. Links
FACES on Facebook Living Places. 2018. "West Side Historic District." Accessed December 04, 2018. http://www.livingplaces.com/NY/Saratoga_County/Saratoga_Springs_City/West_Side_Historic_District.html. Posted by Emina Acee ‘19 and Natalie Cassello ‘21 In search of a location to open an eatery, owners Patricia and Jeff Novo realized that Saratoga Springs was “lacking authentic Italian food… reflective of what they eat in Italy.” Taverna Novo opened in the Arts District at 62 Beekman Street in March 2018 as a small Italian restaurant. While new, the restaurant echoes an earlier era when small Italian eateries contributed to the West Side’s distinctive character. Within Taverna Novo, Patricia said the experience reflects that same authenticity where “you think you’re in Italy. You don’t even know you’re on Beekman.” She intentionally renovated the dining area to maximize the limited space and to reflect Italian culture. The experience of space within Taverna Novo guided the staff into closely-knit relationships. As the bartender, Allie, mentioned, “You definitely have to like each other working in a small space,” or as waiter, Big Mike, called it, “a shoebox.” With a staff of nine people, their communication skills and ability to adapt their roles to the small space influenced the ways in which created pleasant dining experiences. Patricia and Jeff designed the space so that the first thing a customer would notice when they entered Taverna Novo was the wood-fired pizza oven in the back. They also included a small waiting area at the end of the bar beside the hostess area. During our observations, any employee in that waiting space greeted customers, asked if they had a reservation, possibly rearranged tables, and sat them at one of the 10 tables. Soon after, a waiter came to take their order. The waiters constantly adapted to the small space by skillfully gliding between customers and sometimes by sitting at an unoccupied seat. The space determined the roles of the employees. For example, a waiter in the hostess area took on the hostess role by answering the phone to take a reservation. Moreover, the employees manipulated the space depending on their needs, such as when the waiters used the bar as a take-out station. Due to the small space and the limited customers, waiters provided frequent attention to their clients and strived to be efficient in serving, especially during the dinner rush. Patricia mentioned that one of their greatest challenges was finding the balance between providing “a good experience and exquisite food” and, at the same time, increasing customer flow as part of managing a profitable business. As a result, employee roles, customer sensory experiences, and social interactions have evolved since the restaurant opened. For example, they replaced the 8 old bulky bar stools with 11 new ones and two additional dining tables. Employees continually adjusted their interpretations of working in the space, while always seeking to enhance the customer experience. The staff of Taverna Novo expressed the importance of communication through their working and personal relationships with one another in a small space. The staff’s interactions with one another reflected how working relationships intertwine with personal relationships. For example, Allie considered Big Mike to be her “work husband,” the one she went to for help with all her personal problems. Many of the interactions between the staff and how they related to the community also expressed Taverna Novo’s relationship with the greater arts community. According to the employees, a direct relationship with the Arts District was minimal. The staff greatly valued open lines of communication, whether within the restaurant or the greater arts community. Indeed, after successfully launching the new eatery, the Taverna Novo owners have been exploring ways to collaborate with artists and others on the street. Our project reveals how the internal and external communication, along with restaurant design, defined the culture of space within the restaurant and has provided an enjoyable experience for diners on Beekman.
Abbott-Vlahos, Donna and Andrew Roiter. 2018. “How this Restaurant Survived its First Saratoga Summer.” Albany Business Review. September 14. Online: https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2018/03/19/photos-italian-restaurant-opens-in-saratoga.html
Posted by Aggie Raymond '20Crystal Cobert is the owner of FACES on Beekman, a spa boutique located in the Arts District of Saratoga Springs. As an esthetician, nutritionist, makeup artist, and writer, Crystal provides a holistic approach to healing the face. The Arts District on Beekman Street is an arts and business community with a variety of working artists, shopkeepers, restauranteurs, health professionals, and residents. Crystal contributes to the broader view of arts, while also supporting the fine artists. Crystal provides creative healing and uses her shop to display vintage and hand-made items, creating a space that blends local art and organic facial items. Throughout my research, I found that Crystal alleviates physical and emotional pain by gaining trust and creating a collaborative relationship with her clients. Many of her clients struggle with the appearance of their face, thus seeking the specialized care Crystal offers. How people see and react to an individual’s face deeply affects the way that individual thinks about and presents themselves in society. Crystal works with her clients to create a trusting relationship to understand their lifestyle and to provide one-of-a kind treatments, from reflexology to acne. She focuses on the environmental factors of her client’s life, from what they eat, where they live, and if they have pets, to what kind of detergent they use. Crystal modified the original structure of the space in her store to accommodate her needs and those of her clients. She installed barn doors to create a private treatment area, marking the divider between the range of privacy of the boutique and treatment area. Crystal also uses her love and passion for vintage and handmade art to attract potential clients via foot traffic to the local restaurants. On display one could find anything from beautiful handmade hats, to antique keyholes from Paris and vintage button necklaces and earrings. She maintains and creates positive relationships with other businesses on Beekman Street, while putting her shop on the map. Crystal creates lasting relationship with her clients, providing them mental and physical relief to their suffering by providing comfort through her holistic healing approaches.
Posted by Enrique Massidda '20Eden Compton Studio and Gallery, located at 74 Beekman Street, reflects the artistic scene of the Arts District in Saratoga Springs. The small workspace combines studio and gallery; walls adorned in paintings by several artists reside next to piles of paintbrushes and other supplies. Eden Clay, the sole owner of the studio, focuses her work on representative style paintings of landscapes, street scenes and individualized portraits. It’s challenging for a studio artist to sustain herself financially through selling her work and also managing a gallery. She aims to establish herself as a portrait artist while working on other side projects. Drawing inspiration from The Ashcan School (Weinberg 2018), Eden intends to realize her vision for the Beekman Street community through a project that bridges the West Side history with the current state of the Arts District. The project will entail a historical walking tour where QR codes posted on buildings can be scanned to reveal historical information about the building with a painting of what it may have looked like in the past. Eden explores this theme of the contemporary intertwined with the past in some of her works like her painting of a local jazz singer Jenny in the same frame as Chet Baker. By showcasing the Arts District, the Beekman Street residents and businesses embrace the historical legacy of the immigrant neighborhood and use the elements of creative works to usher a welcoming environment of culture and heritage. Eden Clay, those who visit Beekman Street and the variety of businesses that encompass the Arts District are bound together through the sharing art and organizing arts-related activities. Whether it’s walking a dog, cooking, cutting hair or spending countless hours painting at the easel, everyone on Beekman Street is brought together to explore the ideas of Saratoga Spring’s West Side. The influence of Beekman Street ultimately brings people together to explore local creativity and heritage. Links
Eden Compton Pastel Artist. The Art Guide. 2018. "Eden Compton Studio." The Art Guide. Accessed December 17, 2018. https://theartguide.com/gallery/eden-compton-studio. Weinberg, Barbara. 2018. "The Ashcan School." The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Accessed December 16, 2018. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ashc/hd_ashc.htm. Posted by Colin Liscord '20 Living Resources Arts at the 70 Beekman Street Gallery recently located to Beekman Street and has quickly become an integral part of discussions about the meaning of arts in an arts district. While they support fine arts, they also promote a wide variety of art forms as well as artists. The organization also regularly participate in pop-up arts events and regularly hosts their own arts related activities. In this sense, Living Resources represents a new and vibrant approach to creating an arts district. The Arts District on Beekman Street in Saratoga Springs has been active since the beginning of the twenty first century. During their time on Beekman Street, Amejo Amyot and other individuals have worked persistently to create an artistic space in this West Side neighborhood. The Arts District has had its highs and lows, and at one high point thirteen studio artists with space on Beekman Street exemplified the possibilities of creating an arts district. While each individual artist expressed their own style, all worked in the realm of the fine arts, particularly painting and sculpture. Over the years, however, more businesses with creative activities beyond the fine arts have taken up space on Beekman Street. The street still presents a space of creativity with restaurants, tattoo parlors, makeup stores, and other creative businesses occupying storefronts. Yet, the presence of new business raises the question, who should be considered artists on Beekman Street? Should only fine artists be considered true artists? Or should all the forms of creative expression on Beekman Street be considered art? Living Resources is a company that bases a majority of its work out of Albany New York. In the past, they have catered their art classes to individuals with disabilities, claiming that in their facilities “Art is for everyone!” (Living Resources 2018). By displaying multiple artforms such as painting, photography, print making, ceramics, and mosaics, and by hosting community arts-related events, with music and other forms of artistic expression, Living Resources exhibits a broad conception of art as well as artists. With this broad and inclusive perspective of art, Living Resources endeavors to expand their artistic community to a greater audience. This approach allows established artists to explore new modes for expression and new artists to discover a passion for the many different art styles that Living Resources offers. Intentionally or not, by deploying this goal for a broad artistic community, Living Resources expresses the original intention of Amejo Amyot when she first set out to form the Arts District. With this broader approach, however, Living Resources will be able to extend their community to a greater audience and subsequently grow the artistic community on Beekman Street. Links
Living Resources. 2018. “Living Resources Arts 70 Beekman Street Gallery” Online: https://www.livingresources.org/arts_program/gallery/21-beekman-mission-statement Accessed 12-11-18 Living Resources Arts 70 Beekman Street Gallery on Facebook Posted by Lorenzo Brogi-Skoskiewicz ‘20 The Black Circle, located at 79 Beekman Street in the Arts District of Saratoga Springs, is a small specialty store that sells an assortment of items such as artwork, antique and repurposed furniture, small knick-knacks, used books, postcards, vinyl records, and clothes. The artwork includes work from local artists in the area, specifically a group of artists who rent studio spaces in the second floor of the building. However, the majority of the items come from the owner’s personal collection and from his friends. Greer Hamilton, the owner, said that the best way to describe the store is a “curated thrift store.” Greer, a native Saratogian who actually grew up nearby Beekman Street, opened The Black Circle in 2017 and describes the experience of running it as “a dream come true”. When I first visited The Black Circle, I was immediately struck by the sheer number of different items for sale as well as the store’s unorthodox decorative layout. At first it was a little overwhelming for me to look at so many items. However, the more I looked, the more I noticed remarkable knick-knacks and works of art that captured my imagination. Additionally, every time I returned to the store, I always found something I had glossed over previously that completely surprised me. I also quickly discovered that each object in the store had its own unique backstory as to how it got there. For example, I noticed a vintage U.S National Parks poster that was bordered by a gorgeous chestnut wooden frame. When I asked Greer about it, he told me that the frame was made by a friend who repurposes rare woods from abandoned buildings. He then told me a story about how he was almost killed during an accident while collecting the wood for that exact frame. (Don’t worry he made a full recovery!) Greer told me that when he decorates the store, he tries to recreate the aesthetic of “your high school bedroom, except this time without going overboard.” In other words, he does not choose to put objects alongside each other in order to create intentional themes or patterns. Instead, he puts items where he “feels like” and leaves it up to the customers to discover the connections on their own. During my research, I learned that The Black Circle sells a variety of objects that are typically classified as nontraditional forms of art. Moreover, the actual act of displaying all these items (with their histories) alongside each other, allows the store itself to become an artistic space. This curated thrift store embodies and carries on the working-class history of Beekman Street and has become an essential part of the greater Arts District in Saratoga Springs. Posted by Ella Direnfeld '20 Community Roots School, located at 48 Beekman Street stands a part as the only school among the many restaurants, artist’s studios and galleries, makeup and hair salons, and small businesses in the Arts District on the west side of Saratoga Springs. Kristen and Jenna, the teachers and co-owners share their educational philosophy: “Rather than using traditional classroom methods, we feel it is extremely important to use our community as an active learning tool, to foster these skills. A core part of any preschool curriculum is learning about the community in which we live. We feel there is no better way to achieve this, than by actually getting out there and experiencing it first-hand” (Community Roots 2018). My project primarily focused on exploring the themes of community, space, and seasonality as they all relate to Community Roots. By using ethnographic research methods like participant observation, interviews, photography and mapping, I gained insight into how Community Roots formed relationships, especially with the Arts District. Community Roots School plans weekly field trips in Saratoga Springs, including to other businesses in the Arts District, such as the Frittelli and Lockwood Textile Studio, Reform Pilates Studio, and Dehn’s Flowers and Greenhouse. I had the opportunity to attend a field trip to the Textile Studio where the children learned how to make fabric on a loom. The close relationship between Community Roots School and the Textile Studio becomes stronger with each field trip. The textile artists offer a place for the children to see art being made, which connects the teachers and children with artists. Field trips also become opportunities for artistic businesses to open their doors to the community to show and promote their creations. Community Roots School has regular contact with the Barrelhouse located at 68 Beekman Street, three buildings down the block from the school. Every week, Monday through Thursday, the restaurant provides and delivers natural lunches, made from local ingredients. Although the relationship The Barrelhouse and Community Roots started out as a business partnership, the relationship between Jenna, Kristen, and Charlie, the owner of the restaurant, go past strictly business. On the fieldtrip to the Textile Studio, we ran into Charlie who had a big smile on his face when he acknowledged Jenna, Kristen, and the children. The body language, smiles, and friendly hellos further solidified the social relationships along the street. The presence of Community Roots School has added a new dimension to the Arts District as the first and only business on Beekman Street that is centered on children. Links
Community Roots School, see: http://communityrootschool.com or their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/communityrootsschool/ For more information about the Beekman Street Arts District, see: http://saratogaartdistrict.com |
Student projects
Anthropology students present case studies based on projects about local people and places.
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