{"id":31592,"date":"2016-01-12T23:15:20","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T05:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=31592"},"modified":"2023-11-14T09:46:51","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T15:46:51","slug":"mart-becomes-art-terence-k-stephens-art270-gallery-on-salt-lakes-main-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/mart-becomes-art-terence-k-stephens-art270-gallery-on-salt-lakes-main-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Mart Becomes Art: Terence K. Stephens’ Art270 Gallery on Salt Lake’s Main Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Art270-1(1)\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It took a lot of moxie to even consider turning AJ\u2019s Kwik Mart into a decent art gallery, but Terence K. Stephens has done just that \u2013 even creating a \u201cnice urban lofty kind of thing,\u201d as he describes his elegant upstairs quarters, to reside in with his dog, Cougie. And he did all the renovation long distance. The pair moved to Salt Lake City from San Francisco (where Stephens\u2019 gallery dreams were \u201ctoo prohibitive\u201d) in November 2014 and Art270 opened in December of that year.<\/p>\n

Located on Main Street (270, natch) just south of City Weekly\u2019s offices and Sam Weller\u2019s former home, the entire building is only about 15 feet wide, making the gallery narrow but quite workable, with a piece of Stephen\u2019s contemporary sculpture greeting visitors at the door and art hung on stark white walls along both sides. There\u2019s a bar in a small room at the back used for private openings and parties and plenty of space for tables to seat students during art classes held there. The gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday, 1- 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

When Stephens bought the building, windows were broken, there was no flooring or subflooring and the carpeting was shag (shudder).\u00a0 Now, he awakens to the Walker Bank sign directly across from his sky-high bedroom windows announcing what the weather will be (more or less precisely), his late Great Aunt Mary Judge\u2019s building across the street from the living room, his dream gallery just downstairs and a basement studio to create in.<\/p>\n

The artist grew up in Salt Lake City. \u201cI left when I was 18 and came back several times. I would move away and come back,\u201d he says with a laugh. He has a few relatives still living here: his great-grandmother was Jenny Judge Kearns, wife of the Utah senator who was an owner of Park City\u2019s Silver King Mine and The Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n