CLEVELAND, Ohio — Just nine months after opening its doors, Art Tremont has already become a fixture in the historic Tremont neighborhood.
This small, eye-catching space with its bright orange door opened on Friday, October 13th last year. It’s more than just a place to buy unique and hard-to-find art supplies.
Whether you’re an artist by trade, have always loved it but are a newbie, or are interested in trying something new, Art Tremont might be just what you’re looking for.
It’s an art supply store, but also a place where local artists showcase their work. They come and help teach and display some of their artwork.
Owner Mirika Stacey is full of life, colorful and excited about this new venture. Having loved art her whole life, this new store was perfect for her. When she was a baby, her mother would put her in the stroller and take her to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Family vacations also included museum visits wherever they went.
Stacey says: “I love art and I have a passion for art. I am an amateur artist and I take art classes all the time. I love going to art fairs and art museums. Yes, I love art and I love the art scene.”
After moving from Seattle to the Cleveland area, Stacey knew she wanted to do something different. She had a degree in design and spent most of her career in corporate marketing.
Just before COVID hit, she had started buying rental properties, which she renovated and converted into Airbnbs and corporate rentals. While working with an investor, she came across a 19th-century building in the heart of Tremont.
She immediately had a vision of a community arts center that would combine education, retail and gallery space.
“It could have been several different stores,” she says. “I felt like that was what the community wanted most.”
When you first meet Stacey, you get a sense of her vibrant and happy energy. She loves the color orange, and it shows. You can find the color all over the store, from the front door to the walls. She also tries to incorporate the color into her clothing, right down to her bright orange nails. “It’s such an underused color,” she says. “I just love it, it’s so vibrant, full of energy. I just love it, I’ve never been a pink person, just always loved orange. I never understood why people didn’t like it so much. It’s such a great color.”
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but the original color of the building’s door was orange. Was that a sign??
The building has housed many things over the years, from apartments to a bakery to a beauty salon.
Renovating the building was a labor of love and Stacey has worked hard to keep it intact. The interior is original, as are the floors. “Anything I could think of, I did. I watched YouTube and talked to people who told me how to do things. How to patch a ceiling, etc.
“I kept uncovering these beautiful things. It was like a treasure hunt. I found all these really cool things. I found these little shoes while renovating and my sister looked because there’s only one of each. And lo and behold, they were still dirty but they were stuck in the walls. My sister said, ‘When people left their house, they left a little shoe behind for good luck.’ I found a little thing with a boat passage, I found little games from the 19th century, milk containers, it was like a treasure hunt, it was so much fun. There are even little nails in the soles of the shoes. Good luck.”
Stacey said the Tremont area and surrounding businesses have been extremely welcoming and supportive. Stacey has big goals for herself and the studio. She also has an additional 2,000 square feet of space upstairs for possible expansion.
Beyond art, Stacey is determined to help and work with displaced women. “When I turned 50, I decided that the first part of my life would be devoted to learning and the second part to helping,” she says.
She is particularly passionate about helping Ukrainian refugee women with children and occasionally hires the refugee women to work in the store and help with teaching. She has also helped some of them find affordable housing in their rental properties.
“I think they’re overlooked, they don’t have opportunities,” she says. “I think people think the answer is to give them food or money, but really they want a job. They just want to work, feed their families and live in a good neighborhood.”
Stacey’s long-term goal is to expand the store to create more jobs. “It’s just incredibly difficult for these women to get ahead,” she said. “They need opportunities and I just don’t feel like they’re there. So I’m trying to make this (store) bigger.”
She says she would like to start a program to teach women how to start a business or how to make jewelry. She envisions the women selling their creative work at Art Tremont.
Stacey also wants to help refugees build a support system in the community. “If there is no support system, when you look at women living in terrible areas, there is no way for them to get out of there,” she says, adding that she is considering applying for public and private grants to build a business education and resettlement system. “I have different areas of my business that can help, and if I could just get some grants,” she says.
“These women are beautiful. They come and learn English in just a few months. They just want to work and there are simply no opportunities for them that will earn them enough money to actually have a decent life.”
Art Tremont
1009 Kenilworth Ave., Cleveland (located in the heart of historic Tremont)
Some of the classes offered: spoon ring, stained glass, watercolor painting for beginners and calligraphy, to name a few. Classes start as low as $25
You can also purchase art gift baskets, with prices starting at $44
Would you like to book private events? That is also possible. [email protected] 216-273-7255
