Friday, November 28, 2008

Boston Handmade Downtown Grand Opening!

article and photos by, Jessica of Reclaimed To You

Boston Handmade Downtown opens for business TODAY, Friday, November 28th, at 11am. The gallery will be open Thursdays through Sundays, 11am - 7pm until December 28th so you will have plenty of opportunities to shop handmade for the holidays!
hand spun ornaments from Vintage by Crystal

Final preparations for our post-Thanksgiving debut in Downtown Crossing were made on Wednesday. Randi Lathrop, Heidi Burbidge, and Sandy Hussain from the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) came to the Boston Handmade gallery space along with the producers of three other temporary gallery spaces opening in the district. Jen Matson will be opening a gallery at 34 Bromfield Street called Artists Crossing, Scott Cipolla brings her vision of making art accessible through Alternate Currents to a space at 604 Washington Street, and a gallery of fine art and sculpture called Art Market will be opening at 439 Washington Street. We all met, shared news, and discussed how lucky we are to have this opportunity created the BRA and supported by local property owners The Druker Company and Northland Investment Corporation.
from left to right, Jen Matson, Sandy Hussain, Randi Lathrop

All four galleries will be having a coordinated reception event on Thursday, December 4th, from 5:30-7:30pm called "Art Meet Culture" where exhibitors, gallery producers, and representatives from the BRA will be on-hand in an open house setting to discuss the creative culture in Boston, and celebrate the presence of these artist spaces in Downtown Crossing.

The December 4th event is free and open to the public, and we encourage everyone to join us for the evening's festivities.

Generous donations of refreshments will be provided by Ivy Restaurant, Fajitas & 'Ritas, and the Omni Parker House.

Needle felted objects by Cozy Cottage Creations and mini-books from Books by Bexx

With all of the hand crafted items now at home in our Boston Handmade Downtown space at 505 Washington Street we are excited to share our wares with gallery visitors. We have over 30 artists, artisans and craftspeople showing work this month, and new inventory will be delivered to the gallery each week so be sure to stop by frequently to see everything we have to offer!Child's hat shown here by Elizabeth Brennick Designs, knitting & tote bags by Usable Goods

We've already been getting a lot of attention for our gallery and we are just opening today! Be sure to pick up a copy of the Boston Globe on Sunday which we've been told will contain an article about Boston Handmade Downtown and the BRA initiative to bring all four gallery spaces to Downtown Crossing for the Holiday season.

Jewelry by Little Wishes and Lush Beads

There may also be an article in next week's Boston Herald so keep an eye out for it, and on top of all that, we have received a major sponsorship for our creation of this gallery from Etsy.com in the form of a Team Grant. The grant will help us offset the many costs associated with renovating, producing, and maintaining our gallery space.

In addition to being a vibrant group of creative people, Boston Handmade is also an official Etsy Local Team which means that we get to tell everyone, all the time, all about Etsy and the tremendous benefits of buying and selling handmade. We hear that staff from the Etsy Mothership in Brooklyn, NY might also be joining us in our gallery for the December 4th reception event so that is even MORE of a reason for you to be there!

Creating this gallery has been a truly wild ride for the past few weeks, and we look forward to another few weeks in the space sharing what we love with all of you!

Take the T or hop in the car and check us out. Buy Handmade this holiday season and support your local economy and the arts in Boston!

7 comments :

  1. Great article Jess. I can't wait for the end of the day report. Have a great time today and I'll be seeing you tomorrow. I'm so excited!

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  2. Fantastic Jess - I can't wait to come in this week and see!! I hope we have a bang out opening day and continued success until the doors close :0) Marla

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  3. As usual, a brilliant job Jess! The amount of press you have been able to generate in such a short time is truly commendable – not to mention all the wonderful updates.
    Cant wait to get in there, it all came together so beautifully! Hope today went well
    b

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  4. Wow, sounds neat, but I had a really hard time finding out where the gallery space is!

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  5. The address for the gallery is listed in this very blog post (505 Washington Street, Boston) and there are directions on the web site, which can be found from links through this blog post (http://bostonhandmade.org/Downtown.htm). Hopefully you'll stop by soon!

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