theArtWorks

theartworks.co

Year founded: 2013
 
Number of employees: 2
 
Top officials: Jim Knowles, managing director, and Betsy Knowles, CFO
 
Company description: “An art epicenter, where there are working studios, a fine art gallery, a gift shop, event space, meeting rooms, classrooms and art classes.” The facility is 38,000 square feet with 7,200 square feet of gallery space.
 
Target market: “We support the visual, the literary and the performing arts.” theArt- Works also rents space for corporate meetings, events or fundraisers or trade shows.
 
Company growth: “We started out with an individual art studio. It was just a defined space in the middle of the floor with tape around it, and that was the studio … I started building studios to create an art village that emulated New Orleans back in the early 1900s. From that I added classrooms and event rooms and recently added a fine art gallery and a gift shop.”
 
How has your organization helped impact the region’s economic development? “Economically, what we have done is provide opportunities for literally hundreds of people to get involved with the arts and for the arts to get involved with the community such that we create a substantial amount of revenue for our city, our county, our state without having to raise a tax rate.”
 
What are your future plans? To offer expanded live entertainment opportunities and incorporate an art academy.

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