Four years after local artist Renée DeCarlo shut down a short-lived expansion of the Drawing Room at 2675 Mission St., the gallery between 23rd and 24 streets is making a comeback. It is slated to reopen and also include the Mission-based gallery of independent artists Method Made SF.
“Our team sees it as an opportunity for doing something new to help us revitalize the work that we’re currently doing,” said Neal Hilo, an artist and one of the owners of Method Made SF. “Also to take some of the lessons from the work we’ve done over the past year and a half and apply those to the new space.”
Method Made SF currently shares 2544 Mission St., a block away from its future home, with Grand Coffee Too. The coffee shop will remain there and Method Made SF will relocate as soon as this weekend. In addition to the new space at 2675 Mission St., The Drawing Room will keep its current spaces at 599 Valencia St. at the corner of 17th Street, and 210 Clement St. at Third Avenue in the Richmond District.
“I’m really excited to see how the makers with Method Made are going to grow their work and their practice with space to do that,” said DeCarlo, who added that her excitement is also fueled by the thought of bringing foot traffic to the businesses around the new location. “The kind of business artists bring is a super diverse mix of people and everybody has to eat. Everybody has to get something to drink.”
For his part, Hilo calls the partnership a “godsend.”
“Being a small-business owner for the past year and a half has been really hard,” said Hilo. “There’s nights that I go home crying, asking, ‘How are we going to make this work?’”
DeCarlo sees the collaboration as an opportunity to provide more space for local artists to showcase and create their work while supporting Hilo and the other owners.
The idea for the union started when the owner of 2675 Mission St. asked if DeCarlo was interested in taking over the lease to turn it into an art space. The decision, she said, was not easy, because running yet an additional location becomes difficult when there is not enough staff to go around.
Hilo’s participation makes that easier. “They understand how to run and be a part of a gallery,” DeCarlos said. “They can talk to people. They can be professional, and they can deal with all kinds of things that happen in a storefront space on Mission Street.”
DeCarlos has also set up her studio in the back of the new space, so she can work on big projects, like murals. She sees the space as more than a gallery.
“I always envisioned it as a residency program or work studio space for classes and community-centric things that are really hands-on making,” said DeCarlo. “A gallery, too, but really the purpose of it is for making.”