Studio Tashtego moves into former C&E space
Julia Caldwell happens to notice things. She had just moved to Beacon in 2020 when, visiting Cold Spring, she noticed that 49 Main St. was for rent.
A few months later, she opened Studio Tashtego, a gallery focused on ceramics, sculpture and functional artwork such as light fixtures, all with the common bond of what she calls “compositional asymmetry, imperfection and not overstuffed.”
Surrounded by fragile items, Caldwell says she grew frustrated navigating the limited square footage. The breaking point came when she reached for a vessel to hand to the customer who had just bought it and dropped and broke the piece.
Like many others, Caldwell had wondered what would go into the space at 158 Main St. that for decades had been home to C&E Paint Supply but more recently has been empty, its windows papered over. It turns out, it is Studio Tashtego, which is named for the harpooner from the Wampanoag tribe in Moby Dick. The space opened June 17 with a reception for ceramic artist R.A. Pesce’s exhibit, Brutalism vs Nature, which runs through Sept. 3.
The space is divided into a fine-art gallery and a store. “It’s so much more spacious — I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity,” Caldwell says. “For me, it’s about connecting with both sets of visitors. We want to bridge the divide and get away from that perception that this is not for people on a budget, that it may be out of reach.”
The gallery will have British studio ceramics, along with vessels crafted out of leather and pre-Colombian-inspired Chilean pottery. In the store, it’s baskets, Japanese tea bowls, glassware and paper lanterns, among other items.
After moving from the bottom of Main Street to the top of the hill on what she recalls as the hottest day of the year so far, Caldwell says she realized how quickly she had outgrown 49 Main. “I was there for only two years but everything came out of the crevices,” she says. “We struggled our way up, but we got it done.”
Caldwell grew up in rural Cape Cod and, after graduating with a degree in philosophy from New York University, worked for a hedge fund, which she says she hated. She heeded advice to use what you do in your free time as a career guide.
“I found myself doing a lot of online browsing of design, interiors, decorative objects,” she recalls. “That felt frivolous, but I thought I should investigate.”
She went to graduate school for design but dropped out when she found the work too technical. “I was attracted to more traditional decorative arts, marrying functional with the beautiful,” she says. “I wound up working for design galleries in the city and became director of one. I liked curation, working with artists, bringing people into a world of beauty.”
Studio Tashtego is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. See studiotashtego.com or call 917-794-4643.
