Beth is the Director at the Lemon Street Gallery and Artspace
Lemon Street Gallery and Artspace was the brainchild of Melanie Hovey and 12 other artists back in 1999. They got together and said, “Wouldn’t it be terrific if we could all exhibit our work together?” The opportunity became available right here at 4601 Sheridan Road. Melanie and her husband Steve worked hard renovating the place and turning it into a beautiful visual arts center.
Throughout the years, Lemon Street has grown to represent over 75 area artists. We have always stood by our mission to provide a professional venue for artists to exhibit and sell their work, while also offering art education for the community.
We value building relationships to strengthen arts programing in our community. Lemon Street offers various art classes, painting, pottery, stained glass, book binding, and a public clay studio which is available to anyone with clay experience. We have been active in Second Saturdays since it kicked off over ten years ago; each month, Lemon Street hosts an opening reception for our artists of the month.
With Artworks, Re:Vision Art Gallery and Alpaca Arts moving in to the neighborhood to join Peacetree, BeadHaven and Serendipity, we have proudly formed the Union Park Arts District. This summer, we had a very successful inaugural ArtMarket held in Union Park on the third Sunday of each month. We plan to continue that in June – October in 2020.
We continue to do things that have worked for the past 20 years, but also looking for new ways to push the boundaries. Lemon Street offers opportunities for artists or would-be artists to step up and challenge themselves.
Art is so important to our community because it promotes critical thinking and allows one to view the world in a manner which they may not have thought of before. These next 20 years we are excited to see even more community development in the Union Park Arts District.
By Beth Dary
Lemon Street Gallery and Artspace, 4601 Sheridan Road. The gallery is open Sun 11- 4pm, Wed 11- 6pm, Thur 11-8pm, Fri & Sat 11-6pm (Every Second Saturday open until 9 pm). Visit their website for more.
(This story first appeared in the Downtown Kenosha magazine vol. 12, #4, 2019)
