Pictured Above: Inside the Juxtahub Gallery. Photo Credit: Juxtahub.com.

Juxtahub: An Artistic Playground for Makers, Dreamers, and Innovators"

Story by Artist Contributor, Gary Giordano

Artist and Arts News Now Contributor, Gary Giordano shares his conversation with Lindsey Kleinberg about her experience with the Juxtahub Art Center

We were talking before about the different artists here at Jutahub, tell me about them.

I’ve been mindful about considering diversity and backgrounds and styles. I think it’s important

to have this community that’s safe and it brings everyone together. Everyone’s doing their own

thing, but they have a place where they can go and be with other people and make things at the

same time, even if it’s not making something together.

Pictured Above: Lindsey Kleinberg introduces JuxtaHub to new participants during a workshop co-hosted by House of Metalworks. This specialized course offered hands-on experience in creating a one-of-a-kind hammered spinner ring. Participants used practice rings to try out techniques and finally used precious metals of their choice to create a custom changeable ring patented by the owner, Jill Italiano. Additional rings can be added or swapped out and purchased through HOM. . Photo Credit: Contributed.

You said that most of the artists were looking for community.

It’s really a sense of just belonging that I hear as an overarching thing. Having a place where

there’s other people and you can ask questions and engage in conversation. You can create

parallel to each other and be inspired by each other. You have a place where you can just talk,

where you can meet and feel safe. It’s really creating a village of supportive creative innovators

and putting them together. The more positivity we have and the more passion and collaboration

we have the more it’s going to turn into something great.

Pictured Above: Scott White from Bucks County Bonsai introduces his Bonsai Basics workshop with participants including four generations of females from one family. A beautiful multi-generational experience reflective of the cultural bonsai tradition. Two of the other participants were a granddaughter and grandmother duo. Each participant was paired with a specific plant based on difficulty and attributes. . Photo Credit: Contributed.

There are lot of people who are not familiar with Juxtahub. Can you briefly tell me what it is?

Juxtahub is a multifaceted innovative community art center. We encourage multigenerational creativity and interactions within our program areas. We aspire to be a hub and a community base for digital, physical and creative expression and exploration. We offer a digital makers lab with augmented reality and virtual reality capabilities. We have an area for podcasting. We have our makers creation stations. We also have our community classroom, and multifunction area with different types of learning areas. One of them I’ve been calling the thinking studio. This is a smaller area that’s quiet and has carpeting and seating. It has references, and you can use it for storytelling for younger students. It can also be an area for some small theatrical events. There are lab height tables for printmaking and things where you don’t have to be sitting if you like to stand and work. There is an area with regular long tables for community gatherings. We also have more than 20 studios on the second floor. One of those is a community ceramics room and a kiln room. The 20 artist studios on the second floor host a culturally diverse community of working artist utilizing a multitude of media inspiration and talent. We have our gallery area on the first floor as well. The gallery hosts events, gallas, exhibitions, and support local artists, including our studio artists from upstairs. Within our makers’ creation stations in the physical maker space, we have 3D printers, laser cutters, and other various tools and techniques and methodology that people can learn and use. There’s a lot of hands on tinkering and mind thought tinkering.

I was looking at the newsletters Juxtahub it stated that Juxtahub started five years ago?

It was almost six years ago that it started with a small group of volunteers. They were trying to originally make some kind of art museum or a collection of artworks and then it grew and changed and evolved into this multifaceted art center. It’s very important that we offer this place for people to come together and interact and try new things and engage.

Is the Juxtahub in Emmaus?

We are not affiliated with the borough, but it is in Emmaus. We are incorporated under The Emmaus Arts and Innovative Creative Center. We practice under the name Juxtahub because it is easier to say.

Pictured Above: “One of the monthly JuxTuesday events which brought out local artists, patrons, and board members. The evening offered time for networking, conversation, and creative open dialogue, as well as a peek at some of the specialized features of the AR/VR digital experiences. . Photo Credit: Contributed.

For a visitor it seems like there’s places where they can engage beyond visual experience?

I would like to implement a community of art engagement that is free within our programming. We are also talking about Jux Tuesday, which will be an open day for the public. It’s the second Tuesday of the month from 6pm to 8:30pm. That’s going to be our big day when the public can come in. We will host some free art engagement in the community classroom area, probably the ceramic wheels will be open and hopefully we’ll have a ceramics instructor in there. Tuesdays are open for everybody; it’s time to have the artists come together. I think it’s important and it’s something that we forget that art is so organic and it’s so innate in our lives. Like we need to have it. We need art and we need to play. Having this interactive, playful art available is what makes this different than other places where studio artists aren’t just a number. They’re like an interactive part of the community. They are part of what brings it to life. I think sometimes, artists get into their studios, their creative space, their safe place, and they want to get involved, but they don’t know how. They want to be part of things, but they need glue to connect them to what’s happening. If there’s things happening, they can just kind of jump on board. Someone in the community has approached me. She does sound ambient experiences, and she really wants to incorporate this into our first Jux Tuesday by doing gong work in the gallery. She had a class in December and we took all the gongs into the gallery, and we tried to see what it sounded like. It was amazing. One of the great things about Jux Tuesday and all the different kinds of spaces that we have, and individual studios for artists is it’s a day were everyone’s doors are open. We really want everyone to mingle not just be in their space like get out and try new things.

Pictured Above: The gallery walls inside Juxtahub. Photo Credit: Gary Giordano

What are the Goals at Juxtahub?

The goals would be to provide a safe space to build a supportive community where individuals can express themselves and explore innovative art, whether it’s digital or physical and metaphorically building a community of people who support and encourage each other. We also want to offer that third space, a safe space where people come and gather. I think that’s something that we really would like to achieve. So, musicians, artists, teachers, creators, facilitators, and inventors can come together, and learn from each other, and make, and create and innovate. There are more phases to our building plans, and we are excited to start funding for a black box theater and our human movement studio. Black Box theater is a very minimal minimally curated space that can be moved around and changed depending on what function is there. It could be a play going on where everyone sits around with just a few props, or it could be used for a concert area. It could be used as a presentation space.

Pictured Above: One of the interior working spaces at Juxtahub. Photo Credit: Contributed.

Is that open to the public?

Yes, it would be open. People could come and the theater group would rent out the space. The theater group can also use the woodshop to work on their scenes and props. They could rent out a group use studio that would be upstairs to make all their costumes. Then our next phase would be the commercial kitchen area, which would also include a café. Then we are building a grand entrance, Currently, we have our temporary entrance.

Are there days the public can come and just visit?

We do have running programs and there will be open hours for the ceramics room, the wood shop and the makers creation space, as well as the community art studio and classroom space that can be rented by any local artist or a facilitator. Even people with their own brick and mortar who don’t have enough space and want to have a big class once a year or have a special event can rent a space for the day or weekend. We have a list of fifty artists who want to offer at least one class over the next year. There are also artists, facilitators, and educators who want to offer summer camps or weekend camps. We’re hoping to grow slowly at first because each of the multifaceted program areas is like its own business model, so it’s important that we’re flexible in our growth. As we see certain program areas that generate the most interest we can organically go with and support them.

Sometimes trying to get artists together is a challenge they can be all over the place. You know what I mean?

I recognize this, especially in art and creative fields. You can do so much planning and then you just have to jump in and start swimming. The Artist Tracey Emin says she’ll start working with no preconceived idea. She’ll start doing something and it takes her where she wants to go. I think that’s with anything. Sometimes in life you just kind of go where it goes, sometimes you can’t hold on to the past and keep holding on to things because you won’t be able to go where you want to go.

Pictured Above: One of the Juxtahub entranceways. Photo Credit: Contributed.

How did you get involved?

This is a hard one for me because I feel like when you’re an artist and then you become a mother you lose yourself sometimes, and as terrible as that sounds, sometimes you are pulled in different directions because of the needs of everyone around you. You can’t be everything for everyone all the time. So, in recent years I’ve really been focused on facilitating and engaging my community through art. I’ve been involved in the Emmus Arts Commission for six years. I’ve was their president and vice president and other various officers. We’ve been doing a lot of programming. We’ve been facilitating beautification programs; we did the hydrants, we did some murals, currently I’m hosting the student film festival. I was invited to Juxtahub for a tour, and I was very excited because my mission and my plan since I have been a child has been to work in or own an art center and offer programming and outreach for underprivileged children or women and people who have gone through trauma.

Pictured Above: Lindsey Kleinberg. Photo Credit: Contributed.

Tell me a little about your background.

I had planned on going to school for art therapy, but my plans were changed. I had to pivot. I do have a background in graphic design because I went to Drexel and focused on print making. Then I moved to Canada and worked in bookbindery and worked for a newspaper, a global international company. I laid out multiple papers for Canwest Global that is all over the country and for the National Post in Toronto. Then I decided I had to come back and go to school. I was applying to go for art therapy, and I was taking some classes on the side to get certified as a teacher and I ended up just completing that and getting my master’s in education and then taking my practice for art ed, so I have a mix of different skills. I have a master’s in education and then I got certified as an art educator, also special ed, elementary ed, and middle school science. So, I worked as a teacher. I did hybrid environmental art teaching where we worked outside. We had a very limited budget, so we worked with a lot of recycled materials. Everything that I did as an art teacher was an extension of what the students were learning in other parts of their classes. I worked with every teacher in the entire school, and I extended lessons into the art classroom so that the students could work with their hands and make what they were learning. I have also worked as a teaching artist mentor at a program for children in Kensington Philadelphia while I was doing my master’s. It was at the North Square Neighborhood Project. I offered help once a week for programming. It was for the High School, and it was called prodigies. It was an entrepreneurial business and art program, and it was really great. It offered a safe space for them to go to after school with food, art and community. Anything that can open paths because there’s so much toxic stuff coming at these young people, and if they feel like there’s people care is excellent.

What kind of art do you do?

I kind of stumble because I feel like everything in my life is an expression and gratitude and tribute to nature, like everything, our whole lifestyle. The way my children learn. It’s all very arch-enteric. Even if I’m making something or making food or preparing and baking cakes or we’ve been drawing our own wallpaper on our walls we’re doing it all together.

It’s as if the whole community is your canvas?

I like facilitating and organizing and gathering people to bring all the ingredients to make art. I don’t necessarily think that I’m a very good artist most of the time, but if my children come to me and they’re like mom, I need a costume tomorrow, I will whip my sewing machine out and make costumes. I’ll just make it. I sit down and think about oh I have to do this thing. I don’t get caught up in the fear of not being perfect, it’s just me getting started and once I’m started I am I an unstoppable. I know this can sometimes rub people wrong, but I’ve got to just do it. I can’t worry about what other people think. Sometimes creative people worry that it has to be this, or it has to sell, or it has to be in a museum. I create because it’s important, not because of what people are going to think or how much money it will make, I want to just be making whatever way I can. I love woodworking. I love making things or using as many different modalities as possible and thinking about things from different directions and bringing people with experiences in to use art to heal and to make community and feel safe and express and explore. I think otherwise we’re just wasting our lives. This is what we’re supposed to do, create and collaborate and try, try new things all the time.

BIO

Lindsey Kleinberg, is a multi-media artist who is inspired by the natural world, plants, and agriculture. She works in media that integrates playful exploration and transformation. With a concentration in printmaking, painting, and tinkering, she explores media and visual storytelling while considering her deep roots in PA Dutch culture. She is always thinking about how to use items in new ways, how to tell a story without words, and how to create a supportive community of artists. Lindsey currently serves as the Vice President of JuxtaHub, an innovative art center in Emmaus. After joining in 2019, she has served as the President of the Emmaus Arts Commission for several years. She also sits on the Board of the Emmaus Main Street Partners. She is a graduate of the Graphic Design program at Drexel university as well as Temple University with a master’s in education. From textiles to technical, she dabbles in many art forms and loves to learn new things.

Learn more about Juxtahub Art Center at juxtahub.com.