Inside this mongrelized building on Blodgett St., Museum Park residents Matt Scheiner and Lisa Qualls have opened a friendly neighborhood art gallery they’ve named Gallery Jatad. Their suite at 1517 Blodgett — it’s the one with the unpapered windows — used to house a record and T-shirt shop; it shares the strip center with a nail salon, washateria, and food mart. County records indicate that the center, spanning La Branch and Crawford, dates to the 1940s, though it appears to have been bejeweled with those decorative diamonds and a stucco mask in the ’70s, says Scheiner. Inside, the suite has been renovated to feature museum-issue walls and lighting and the old building’s original slab.
The gallerists’ friend Victor Rojas says he will be opening a showroom right next door at 1515 Blodgett for his own furniture and metalwork; and they say they have another friend considering opening a coffee shop in the endcap.
- Fine Traditional African and Contemporary Art [Gallery Jatad]
Photo: Allyn West
Fantastic!! Wish you and the neighbors all the best :-)
In the day it was home to “Club LaVeek” . . .
drinks, jazz and whatever you needed.
I’ve been to this gallery and it’s gorgeous! Really worth checking out!
Coffee! Yes!!! THANK YOU!
A gift to the neighborhood!
Ummm, I think the strip center got its stucco mask in the last decade, not the 70s.
“Ummm, I think the strip center got its stucco mask in the last decade, not the 70s.”
Yes…it looks like it was dipped in the Tuscan barrel of beige. The original 40s exterior would probably fit an African art gallery a lot better.