In the print making space at Art Gym, Lucas Luna prepares an engraved copper plate for a press. Luna plans to sell small prints at the Holiday Fine Arts Festival this month.

Inside a former Safeway store in the Montclair neighborhood of Denver, hurried shoppers have been replaced by the concentration and collaboration of artists creating. A beloved community workspace for hundreds of creators since 2017, Art Gym exists “to help artists make art and keep making art,” explains Tyler Campbell, director of operations.

The art community was founded by artist Vickie Stevinson to fill two gaps in the world of fine arts: access to equipment and camaraderie between artists. The shared workspace that she and her husband developed includes hubs for metalsmithing and lapidary, mixed media, printing, digital art, and two-dimensional art. “Every day I come in, it’s a whole new art,” Stevinson says. “This really is the best.”

For print maker and graphic designer Jamie Gibson, Art Gym has delivered “big time,” she says. “Art Gym has given me the tools and guidance to become a professional artist.” Gibson floundered for a couple of years after art school, pinched by a lack of supplies and support, but rekindled her desire to create after “moving to Denver for the very reason of being near Art Gym,” she recalls. Today she uses the digital and printmaking spaces to design and produce gig posters for bands.

Lene Soenderholm uses metalsmithing and lapidary tools to craft fine jewelry with stones and silver.

The Denver business is one of only a few large shared workspaces for creators of fine arts in the United States.

Print maker and graphic designer Jamie Gibson, left, and Gregory Santos, print shop director, review some of the gig posters Gibson has created for bands with equipment from the shared art workspace.

Like Gibson, Lucas Luna looks to the shared workspace to reach his goals as a working artist. “It can be super hard to find communities that are thriving with such a wide range of artistic ventures and resources,” he notes. “I don’t have to pay to rent a studio or buy the equipment to print, which can price an artist out of their work.”

Artists attend to details in the mixed media hub inside a former Montclair neighborhood Safeway that has been refurbished as a workspace for creators of many disciplines.

Tyler Campbell, director of operations, explains the inspiration behind his prints on the gallery wall.

Luna practices intaglio (etching) to create prints for a cartography company that blends modern mapmaking techniques with Luna’s “old-school” engravings. “I can’t do this without Art Gym,” he says, gesturing toward the ink rollers and expansive tables where he prepares copper plates for the presses.

“There is a rising desire for work that takes skill and has the real aspect of human touch,” he adds. “It’s important to me to uphold these methods that still require skill and time and make me a better person.”

The metalworking and lapidary spaces are popular with Denver fine jewelry makers, who gather to swap tips and share tools. Lene Soenderholm hopes to turn her metalsmithing practice into a future business. “It means everything to me that I can sit here, learning alongside my friend,” she says.

The space also offers a shared kitchen for small businesses and a performance room with a sprung floor for dancers. Even the basement is a dedicated community space, as Art Gym hosts the African Community Center’s warehouse in the lower level. Monthly memberships  start at $60 for part-time access and $115 for full-time access. Beginners through professional artists are welcome, and scholarships, student discounts, and residencies are available. A fiber club and gallery crawls, among other art programming, are free and open to the public.

Art Gym’s Fine Arts Holiday Market will be held from 4–8pm on Dec. 7 and will include paintings, jewelry, and crafted pieces such as holiday cards and hand-printed totes.

“We are all about connecting people with art,” Campbell explains. “At the festival, we will have demonstrations by our artists and opportunities for people to try out themselves, alongside food and drink and the gallery exhibits.”

For more information, visit artgymdenver.com

Front Porch photos by Christie Gosch