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WILKES-BARRE — The Arts Seen Gallery on Public Square will soon be unseen.
The gallery, which has occupied the space at 21 Public Square for five and a half years, is being evicted.
The 4,500-square-foot space reportedly will become a grocery store, but property owner Rob Finlay of Humford Equities would not confirm that.
Kim Kulagina, the volunteer operations manager of the art gallery, said a new location has been secured on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton. The move will take place June 1, she said.
Kulagina said she did seek alternative sites in Wilkes-Barre, but couldn’t find any space at an affordable rent.
“We hoped someone would have shown some interest in helping the arts,” Kulagina said. “But we didn’t get any concrete offers.”
The gallery will close shortly after the 60th Fine Arts Fiesta wraps up in May.
The Arts Seen Gallery is non-profit and operates as a the city’s only artist co-operative, with displaying artists taking turns watching the store.
Kulagina said artists tend the store in four-hour shifts. She said most of the artists are from the Wilkes-Barre area and many will not move their work to the new Scranton location.
Kulagina said the gallery paid a much reduced amount for rent and will be paying much more in Scranton, where she will also operate a small cafe in the gallery.
In Wilkes-Barre, the gallery not only offered display space for local artists, but also offered guitar and violin lessons and held open mic poetry readings and instructional classes on painting, cartooning and more.
“The artists are upset,” Kulagina said. “People like this place and not just for the art; it’s a place to gather socially and without any liquor.”
Kulagina works in Wilkes-Barre and lives in Scranton. She said she will miss the downtown and events like the Farmers Market that brought people into the gallery.
“Our intention was always to build up the arts,” she said. “I believe artists are very interested in building the spirit of the community.”
Larry Newman, executive director of the Diamond City Partnership, said he was disappointed to learn the gallery is leaving Wilkes-Barre, saying it has been “a wonderful contributor to the downtown arts scene” over the past five years.
“The good news is that the downtown arts scene remains alive and well and growing stronger,” Newman said. “This will be the 60th year for the Fine Arts Fiesta in May and Downtown Arts is doing well on North Franklin Street.”
He said the Arts Seen Gallery was an outgrowth of other arts’ initiatives that are still going strong here in downtown Wilkes-Barre. He said the original Arts Seen Gallery was designed to be a “short-term, pop-up presence” in a vacant storefront on Public Square.
“I’m quite confident that there will probably emerge replacement storefront galleries to take the place of Arts Seen because there is a need,” Newman said.
Bob Heim has much of his work displayed at Arts Seen Gallery.
“It was nice while it lasted,” Heim said. “I thought of it as a little retail business on Public Square. I’m just sorry more people didn’t take advantage of it.”
Heim said the gallery offered local artists a place to exhibit their work and it was good for the downtown.
“But we were there with the understanding that the space could be rented,” Heim said. “We are grateful for the time we had there, but we all knew this could happen.”
Heim said he enjoyed minding the gallery from time to time. He said it brought artists together and it offered the public a chance to see their work.
“But this situation is kind of the state of the arts everywhere,” Heim said.