Paintings and metalwork of the endangered Whooping Crane line the gallery walls while artist Jessica Folck chats with visitors who have wandered in through the building’s open garage door.
To the right, two resident artists work in their studios while they chat through their open doors. Shelves of art supplies line the classroom walls and the tables are stained by every imaginable color of paint.
The Creative Well Arts Foundation is the ViBe Creative District’s “creative incubator,” which has been busy since opening nearly two months ago.
Co-founders Monica Turley and Tessa Hall Duquette started this journey in 2023.
“I just wanted a place to put my paint,” Duquette said.
The women would leave the building’s overhead door open and people would walk around the space and ask questions. The spot morphed into a community hub that hosted art shows, workshops and educational programming.
“And then we just outgrew it,” Duquette said.
They recently relocated from “The Garage” to the larger building next door to serve as a “landing pad for all creative needs in the ViBe District," Turley said.
“The Creative Well Arts Foundation supports artists throughout their lifelong journey,” Turley said, “it has the concept where people can come and refill their cup and be renewed and restored.”
“Whether you verbalize it or not, there is a therapeutic aspect to art making … we’re all born creators one way or another.”
The Wellspring classroom is used for classes, including watercolor, charcoal sketching, art camps and sessions for kids while parents enjoy the nearby farmer’s market.
“We’re so lucky to be in this neighborhood with this community aspect,” Duquette said.
The women have been inundated with applications from people who want to teach, from professional ballerinas to licensed therapists.
About half of all the offerings are free and classes are designed for different ages, abilities and experience levels. The foundation seeks to be there for small children learning to use their bodies for self-expression, surgeons looking for an outlet after a day of intense precision work and dementia patients undergoing art therapy.
“We’re trying to speak to the art-curious and people who wouldn’t claim themselves as artists,” Turley said.
Some of the programming involves opportunities to meet the five resident artists who each rent a studio for the next year. The artists often collaborate while working.
“It’s just like an art school, almost,” Duquette said. The women say that creating art can often be a solitary act, but artists often want more.
“We’re yearning for a community, having those experienced artists talk to young artists or new artists and share,” she said.
Duquette said she also wanted to create a place where women — specifically mothers and young women — feel supported.
One of the foundation’s affirming moments happened when Maddie, who attended one of the first art camps at The Garage, lost her great-grandmother, artist Patricia Krekorian. The family donated Krekorian’s 600 paintings to be sold by Turley and Duquette to start the nonprofit.
“We were serving this family, unknowingly, from great-granddaughter who is a toddler, essentially, all the way to her great-grandmother who has passed,” Turley said.
The venue also hosts exhibitions. A recently closed show was the first solo one for Folck, a multimedia artist. It allowed the community to ask her about her work, which explores themes of motherhood, grief and rebirth, represented by the Whooping Crane.
The current show, “STILL: Life Studies,” opened Saturday and features Los Angeles–based artist Myan Soffia.
Visit creativewellarts.org for more information.