Renovations: a little progress

The first thing we are doing is tearing the nasty hung ceiling down to reveal to old tin ceiling. It is in pretty rough shape, but we wanted to salvage all the tin and create a Lousie Nevelson-esque ceiling. In other words, put as much tin as we can back up, leave the copper pipes and such that would be really hard to move, and insert some sculptural elements. Then we will paint the whole thing matte black.

Of course the artists in us saved all the scrap metal for use in future projects. Good thing we have a huge basement!

Here you can see the tin ceiling as it is now.

I just had to show this fake tile and lace stapled to the wall--how funny!

Brandon hard at work--I don't know what I would do without him! I did attempt to use a couple power tools today, but it's really not my thing :)

Giving an Old Building New Life

The building we just bought for The Eclipse Gallery was built in 1909, and has been pretty neglected. But I'm one of those people that loves to give new life to old things. I am so excited that we will be opening the gallery on the building's 100th birthday! To give you an idea of the shape the building is in currently, I thought I'd post a few "before" pictures. We certainly have our work cut out for us, don't you think?

The first thing we are doing is tearing that awning down and replacing it with something elegant, repainting the woodwork and fixing the ugliness around the main doors and big windows.

This will be part of the art studio. I can't wait to fix it up and get organized!

Front window of the gallery

Eventually will be part of the art studio.

Believe it or not, this will be part of the gallery.

And so will this.

Lots and lots of dust.

And falling down tin ceilings that must be revamped.



Over the next few months I will be using this blog to document the state of the building now, and our progress toward the grand opening. We are really enjoying this process and are so happy to be giving this building new life.

Welcome

Welcome to The Eclipse Gallery blog. Many of you know me from The Emergence Project and Visual Influence. I am very happy to be opening a bricks-and-mortar gallery in beautiful Algoma, Wisconsin (just south of Door County). We have just bought a building and are in the process of moving, then a lot of renovations! Our goal is to have the gallery open by Summer 2009.

I will be posting some pictures of what the building looks like now, just so that we can have those great before and after pictures, and so everyone can appreciate the amount of work we are going to be doing to this place! But I just love the idea of taking an old run-down building (it was built in 1909) and giving it a fab makeover, and new life. Especially since it will be the building's 100th birthday!

I have a temporary website up, which you can view here. If you are an artist that is interested in showing your work with us, click here. Coming soon: www.theeclipsegallery.com

I am also looking for a graphic designer for my logo. E-mail me if you know someone. Also to sign up for our quarterly newsletters, use the sign up form on the right.

Thanks, Sarah Elizabeth

sarah@theeclipsegallery.com