(From left) KB Brown, Kate Fowler and Barry O’Keefe of Studio Two Three
It’s no surprise that an art collective led by creatives can turn a plain white room into something magical. But it isn’t just the team members of Manchester’s Studio Two Three who will play a role in bringing the group’s new store to life.
“This is really going to be for the community, so it’ll be shaped by people here,” says Kate Fowler, the organization’s director of community partnerships and development.
The new space, Shop Two Three, opened in September at 1437 Hull St. in Manchester’s retail district. The space’s focus is consumer products made by local artists at the studio — art prints, apparel and other merchandise — but plans to go beyond those bounds are in the works, something that doesn’t surprise Executive Director Ashley Hawkins.
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Studio Two Three’s many artists design the offerings for sale.
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Shirts and bandanas on display at Shop Two Three
“We had a vision for a better retail space, but we kept wanting to do more with it as we planned it out,” Hawkins says. “We want to host visiting artists, classes, art exhibitions, movie nights. ... Basically, everything we’ve been doing [in our current space] and more.”
Located two blocks from Studio Two Three’s current arts space — the former Dogtown Dance Theatre — the new storefront’s 1,800 square feet add more room for their popular vendor markets and for introducing new artist collaborations. “This can be inclusive to all kinds of artists because we have a space now to display a wide range of works,” Fowler adds.
After the studio’s 2008 founding in Manchester and subsequent moves to the Fan, Scott’s Addition and, most recently, West 15th Street back on the South Side, Fowler relishes the stability of keeping their roots in the ground and growing. “We started out down here, and our move back has inspired us to keep going,” she says.
