Judith HeartSong A&M Interview October 2023

Speakers: Judith HeartSong, Founder/Owner/Executive Director, Artists & Makers Studios

Judith HeartSong: Hi and welcome to Artists & Makers Studios. My name is Judith HeartSong and I am the owner, founder and director of Artists & Maker Studios. Our flagship location is here in Rockville, Maryland. We have an additional location in Oro Valley, Arizona. There is another location in San Gabriel, California, which is under construction and a fourth location ready to break ground in North Hollywood, California. We host a wide variety of practices here. We host painters, jewelers, pastel artists, fiber artists, woodworkers, actors, performers, dancers, yoga and art, Pilates and art, writers, poets, screenwriters, art consultants, art dealers and brokers as well as web designers and probably any other clean practice that you can think of. We have artists contacting us all the time for space. We typically run full and on waitlist and have a significant waitlist at each location for opportunities that arise. Here in Maryland, we have 13,000 square feet. In Oro Valley, we have 3,800 square feet. in San Gabriel we will have approximately 9,500 square feet. And in North Hollywood, we will be somewhere around 12,000 square feet. We love having artists here, we love seeing dialogue in the hallways, people critiquing each other's work, people sitting down to eat lunch and chat and catch up. And of course, we love to welcome the public into the buildings so that they can see what the artists are working on and enjoy the art.

Judith HeartSong: Our vision for Artists & Makers Studios is quite unique in that we focus on the professional needs of our artists. We have 24 hour access, which is perfect for some of our artists who are working to be professionals, but also may work as a doctor or an attorney or a teacher or a professor and they need to work unique hours. We don't have any mandatory hours. The artists can work in the middle of the night if that suits them and can come lock themselves into the building and feel very safe. It tends to be an environment where they can focus on what they're doing and not have to worry about much else. Our gallery program brings community artists and beyond into the buildings to show their work, to invite their collectors and their followers so that they will interact with our resident artists. We take a lot of pride in providing an environment that works for working artists.

Judith HeartSong: Our hope for the future is that these programs will grow and thrive. And over time, little by little they tend to change because some artists come and go and new practices and new people and new personalities come into the building and infuse themselves into this kind of living organism that is Artists & Makers. We enjoy watching the careers of our alum. We tend to follow them and still promote them, and really enjoy the fact that so many people both while they're here and as they move on, go on to do really great, wonderful things. We really, really enjoy that. I guess long term, we just want to be a place where the community can come and connect and relax, and read books and meet artists and see processes that maybe they've never seen before and just enjoy this environment that feels rare to people who don't work in the arts every day. So personally, my hope is to continue to connect people and inspire people and support people and just enjoy this really strange, wonderful thing that is the arts every day. Thanks for listening.