A nonprofit art space called Looky Here at 28 Chapman St. in Greenfield will feature everything from tarot card readings to instrument building classes as well as a thrift shop for art supplies. Looky Here is slated to have its grand opening on June 24 at 9 a.m.
Hannah Brookman, president of Looky Here, told the Valley Advocate the nonprofit’s mission is firstly to serve as a community-oriented creative reuse store offering art supplies to the local area with the space also serving as a workshop, lecture room, live music space, and art gallery.
“It’s kind of keeping these objects out of the trash and into the hands of artists who can use them,” Brookman, who is artist herself, said. “It’s a place where we can have a collection of all these materials and people will be able to come and find what they’re looking for; especially because art supply stores aren’t really available in the area.”
Brookman said she and three other female artists became interested in the space as a nonprofit art spot. It was previously a consignment shop named Looky Here, a name they decided to keep.
Artists at work at Looky Here in Greenfield. Photo courtesy of Looky Here.
“There’s a pretty wide community of musicians and artists that are around the western Massachusetts/ southern Vermont area that we are all a part of,” she said. “Outside of us, we know there’s an even larger group and we knew that there was a demand for a space for these artists to get together.”
She said the art supply thrift shop and artist space opened its doors with a soft opening in November, hosting a few workshops and a Spanish Film Festival for the past month, but with the grand opening, Looky Here will begin having continual open hours and a ongoing calendar of events.
“We plan on taking out the ceiling panels to expose the tin roof above and we’ll be revamping the shop” Brookman said. “The front will be a gallery and community space, the middle will be the resale store, and the back area we have a broken Risograph printer, which we are looking to either repair or replace because it is part of our dream to have affordable Risograph duplicating services.”
Some of the classes that would be featured at Looky Here include a lecture series, life drawing, film screening, a tarot workshop, writing groups, rug weaving, sound exploration workshops, and instrument building workshops, she said.
Chris Goudreau can be reached at cgoudreau@valleyadvocate.com.
