- November 18, 2024
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Two years ago this August, J.J. Graham spent 12 days in PrzemyÅ›l — the second-oldest city in Poland. He had to leave behind two paintings when his residency was up. But what he left with — a vision of how art and community can become integrated, as well as a desire to innovate — are qualities that will serve the owner of Hollingsworth Gallery in his newest venture.
Graham is close to striking a partnership with Flagler Schools to set up shop at the A1A Center in Flagler Beach. If that happens, he’ll move his classrooms and studios from his current location at City Marketplace under the new name, “Salvo Neoteric Art Project.”
“I’ve heard different things,” said Graham of a timetable. The school board “said that if we get something worked out, it can happen rather quickly. I know their calendar starts in July; if we could move in there before July, that would be ideal, because my idea would be to get artists and teachers in there right away to start bringing revenue in.”
School Board member Sue Dickinson said that the board consulted with Superintendent Jacob Oliva and suggested arranging a meeting between Graham and school attorney Kristy Gavin.
“At that (May 6 school) board meeting, our direction to the superintendent was to get the attorney and JJ together to draw up the contract,” Dickinson said.
That meeting could take place within the next couple weeks, she added.
If Graham moves into the facility, interaction with students would begin right away. He envisions a robust internship program that would pair a student intern with each of his professional artists.
“We would make that competitive,” he said. “We’d want to see that the students were really interested in the arts and wanted to be involved. It wouldn’t just be a hangout.”
Instead, students would learn principles of design and other basics at a level usually unheard of before college.
“That would be priceless,” Graham said. “I couldn’t imagine having that opportunity — learning how to stretch canvas, learning mediums. They would have such an edge going into college, because you spend your first year of college learning all that stuff. They’d be way ahead of the curve.”
Striking a deal with Graham would allow the school board an alternative to leveling an adjacent building and removing surrounding portable trailers — something that’s very much on the table if an agreement with Graham isn’t made.
“At this point, it would be pretty much vacant most of the time,” Dickinson said. “We’d utilize it for some (adult education) classes, but not very many. It would be a big advantage for the community up there, and it would be helpful for us, because we wouldn’t have to do all the negative things we’d have to do up there.”
With a more lucrative space, Graham could generate revenue through openings and residencies. He’s a big fan of the Bay Area Figurative Movement that possessed San Francisco in the 1950’s and 60’s. Works generated through the movement stand out for their color palettes, he said. During the past six years he’s spent at Hollingsworth, area artists have sprung from dormancy to cultivate a unique Northeast Florida community. A haven at A1A could further it, he says.
The details of Graham’s plan were laid out in a business proposal he presented to the school board in April. In addition to residencies, it outlines outdoor concerts, a coffee shop, and festivals as additional streams of revenue.
Along with business partner Petra Iston, Graham hopes to use the A1A center to expand beyond the limits of Hollingsworth — both architecturally and conceptually.
“While our openings (at Hollingsworth) are hugely attended, the traffic generally dies down afterwards. With all the traffic on A1A, this could change dramatically, especially if we creatively made the building and signage more attractive,” the proposal states.
While he reiterated that the move is still in the planning stages, Graham’s hopeful.
“If we move into A1A, that’s a whole different canvas with a whole lot of different problems to solve, but the opportunity is there to do things totally different,” Graham said.
