Artists search for new gallery space as Baltimore's Night Owl closes

Baltimore's Night Owl Gallery will close in mid-October after three years in the city's Station North Arts District. 

Founder Beth-Ann Wilson first opened the gallery in 2016 in Highlandtown, where it mainly featured her own works.

Why is Night Owl closing? 

Wilson said the three-year commercial lease she signed in 2022 is coming to an end. She said she had to think logically, with her head instead of her heart, when making the decision not to renew. 

"At the end of the day, we're just not hitting our sales goals to break even, so over the past two and a half years or so it's been tipping into savings and putting things on credit cards… that shouldn't be on credit cards," Wilson said.

She started a fundraiser to pay down some debts that she had incurred and to potentially help Night Owl Gallery transition to a new space. So far, she has raised $5,000. 

"I'm not sure when or where that might be, but I don't think that this is the end for Night Owl Gallery," Wilson said.

Making space for Baltimore artists

Since moving to Station North, the Night Owl Gallery has become known as a place for emerging and early-career artists. The top floor is home to studio spaces for six resident artists. 

"It was really important to me to use some of the space to give artists a place to create," said Wilson. 

Quentin Gibeau was one of the first artists to rent studio space. Now, with the gallery set to close, he's not sure where he'll go. 

"I was pretty bummed out," he said. "COVID really hit the art scene hard in this part of town."

Gibeau has been the manager at Gallery CA, just down the street from Night Owl Gallery, for the past 10 years. He said finding affordable studio space in the area is not easy. 

For artists, there is an incentive to live or create artwork in Station North. The area is one of four designated Arts and Entertainment (A&E) Districts with tax incentives. 

Those who qualify can avoid paying Maryland state and local income taxes on artistic works that are sold. 

"The arts community definitely needs more affordable art spaces," Gibeau said. "That's been a battle for a long time in Baltimore. The more progress we make with trying to stabilize the city in terms of infrastructure, it seems like the development that happens means that it's less affordable for artists."

Asset to Baltimore's art scene 

When Wilson moved the gallery to Station North, there was an art walk a few months out of the year over the summer.

The walks are free to the public and include a night of simultaneous exhibitions, special events and open studios at venues throughout the district. 

"Beth-Ann herself was a real asset to the arts scene because she was the main organizer of the Station North Art Walks, which also activated everything," said Gibeau.

Wilson said she saw it as a lost opportunity because the neighborhood is so close to the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and over the summer, there are fewer students around. 

"I think that it's really important for the students to get off campus and go explore galleries and interact with real-life working creatives," Wilson said. 

Wilson said she worked alongside the Station North Arts District and Central Baltimore Partnership to expand the Second Friday Art Walks to include the holiday shopping season. 

She said the organizations "care about businesses and the local economy, and it's been really great to have them as partners in this endeavor."

"It's always tough when you lose a business, especially one that has been so invested in the community," said  Station North Arts District Director Abby Becker. "While the economics didn't add up in this case, she [Wilson] has helped us build considerable momentum. I will do everything I can to continue supporting artists and the spaces that make their work possible, which Beth-Ann does so remarkably."

For Wilson, Night Owl Gallery has always been about supporting emerging artists.

"To go from that to giving somebody their first solo show and now they're a part of museum collections… It's really special, and it means a lot that I could play that small role in helping their lives and their careers," she said.

Final show at Night Owl

The final solo exhibitions at Night Owl Gallery are Vivisepultura by Rory Holcomb and Parallel Play by Jonah Brock. Both open Friday, Sept. 12, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. during the Station North Second Friday Art Walk.

Both shows "explore the body as lived experience, contested site, and unruly boundary—investigating its vulnerability, pleasures, and refusal to be reduced to mere image," according to a press release from the gallery.

Brock's show, Parallel Play, "references the childhood stage of playing alongside, but not with, others, while Holcomb's Vivisepultura—Latin for "live burial" — interrogates the ways one can be both living and dead, connected and isolated," according to the gallery.

The two concurrent exhibitions run through October 18, the last day Night Owl Gallery will be open.