* = Recently updated (5/15/23)
Several of you responded to my last newsletter with suggestions to look into for a new teaching space around the St. Louis area. I wanted to address some of these suggestions and will keep updating this post as time goes on.
MAYBE LIST
GREEN DOOR GALLERY* – I taught a handful of classes there pre-pandemic, but I’m not certain it will work in a consistent format. Met with “newer” owner and she agreed to give this a shot. We will start with some classes in the Fall, so stay tuned!
LAUMEIER SCULPTURE PARK – They have a teaching space but I don’t think they rent it out to people. I will look into it.
MAYBE IN THE FUTURE LIST
HOBBY LOBBY / MICHAELS / JOANNS – Unfortunately they are still under pandemic lock down and can’t rent their rooms yet. Maybe in the future? The other issue is I don’t want my classes to be out in the open for anyone to hang out and watch (and that amps up the squirrel factor with the kids being easily distracted), so that limits these establishments.
WEBSTER ARTS – They emailed back, but unfortunately due to their limited hours and staff, what I need won’t work in that environment. It’s possible I could teach one off classes from time to time, but nothing big.
WON’T WORK LIST
LIBRARIES – These are out because they don’t like people getting paid who use their space.
CHURCHES – I actually was doing this a couple years before the pandemic started, but there was a policy shift across many churches where they stopped renting space out all together. The ones who still did requested astronomical insurance that I couldn’t afford.
SHARED WORKSPACE / COOPS – Unfortunately this won’t work because I don’t want to piss off other people using those offices because I have may have noisy classes.
BETTY’S BOOKS – On the surface this is THE ideal place for me as this store caters to only comics and graphic novels. The problem is space. They have no space for a class setting and it would be all out in the open, which gives too many distractions to the kids.
Keep your suggestions coming by CONTACTING me and hopefully one of them will pan out!
Thanks!