OUR STORY

In March 2020, COVID-19 took the world by surprise. In the early days, the global pandemic’s circumstances were new to us all. Naively, we thought the lockdown would last only a few weeks. About 6 months later, I became unemployed.

On what was to be my last day at work, I went over to the event space to close it up. That day I also met with the owner of the building. Since there were two separate sides to the venue, the building owner offered me the opportunity to work on the Triangle side and create my own business. As long as I got the permitting in order and could finish getting the gas turned on for the HVAC and the kitchen. He asked me what I could afford to pay in rent, and the rest is history.

For the first few days after taking over the empty space, I walked around the Meatpacking District in the frigid cold asking myself what I could do to bring the space to life? I’ve always been inspired by the street art of New York City, and suddenly, it clicked. I decided to bring the outside in. I stumbled upon MDOT-SEASON’s murals, which had been painted on boarded-up storefronts, and through another stroke of luck, I came across DEC.NYC on Instagram. Instantly, I knew that my newly acquired space would be the perfect fit for their work.