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<\/a><\/p>\nEvery successful business must continuously scan the environment, reassess its performance and goals, and make adjustments as needed. Art galleries, like\u00a0UTah Artists Hands, are no exception. Owner Pam O\u2019Mara\u00a0may have found the perfect business reincarnation with the transformation of her gallery space into half-gallery, half-coffee shop and restaurant.<\/p>\n
In the eight years Pam O\u2019Mara has owned and operated Utah Artists Hands, a gallery featuring the work of Utah artists, it has been a rollercoaster ride. When the economy took a major dive starting in 2007, other business owners might have scrambled for safety to a more secure business. Not O\u2019Mara. Through neighboring construction, which affected customer parking, as well as tighter budgets, which inhibited art purchases, O\u2019Mara has hung on for dear life.<\/p>\n
If the definition of insanity is doing things the same old way and expecting different results, O\u2019Mara will have none of it. In May, 2009, she began to hatch a concept for the business\u2019 transformation. It depended on cooperation from both the building owner and the owner of the adjacent\u00a0Caff\u00e9 Molise. \u201cThe most profound thing about this project,\u201d says O\u2019Mara, \u201cis the cooperation between two small businesses. We\u2019ve done a very creative thing.\u201d Construction, on what appears to be a win-win-win for all involved, began in October. The transformed space includes The Artful Cup, \u2013 which may be the city\u2019s most inviting and, literally \u201cart-full\u201d coffee shop \u2013 and officially opened with the March 19th Gallery Stroll.<\/p>\n
Think of two business spaces turned into three spaces, with the two businesses sharing the middle. Utah Artist Hands gave up some floor space but gained wall space in the transformation. A windowed wall with attractive double doors goes north-south down the middle of the former space, dividing the gallery from the coffee shop. It has its own door to the street, but can also be accessed through the new door to The Artful Cup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the new coffee shop space, a sales counter and barista station welcomes visitors as they enter from the street.\u00a0<\/strong>Shelves display ceramic cups crafted locally. The west wall provides display space for two-dimensional art. Bistro tables and chairs, as well as easy chairs, invite coffee and tea sippers to linger. And a library shelf of art books is available for customers to browse.<\/span><\/p>\n At the back of the coffee shop, formerly O\u2019Mara\u2019s office, are newly constructed restrooms and a passageway to Caff\u00e9 Molise, next door to the west.\u00a0Original art for sale by the gallery hangs on the corridor wall space as well as in the restaurant.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n