Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery celebrate anniversary

Por David Schwab | Reportero SDUN

Maureen Ceccarelli celebrated 25 years in business in South Park with a combined silver anniversary and Dia de los Muertos party on Saturday, Nov. 5. Joined by family, patrons and friends, Ceccarelli said she was blessed with the success of Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery.

“I’ve tried to make my store a place where people can come in and say, ‘hi,’ and they don’t have to buy something,” Ceccarelli said. “That’s an important piece of what I do here: build community.”

The boutique features contemporary crafts, jewelry, apparel and art, among other hard-to-find items, and the gallery showcases works by San Diego and Tijuana artists. Both are located at 2963 Beech St.

“For so long, I really didn’t make any money,” the storeowner said. “I was selling my jewelry and that was my main source of income. I didn’t picture this happening, where it would grow into something bigger, becoming a community hub.”

Ceccarelli attended California State University, Chico in Northern California and took to a love for working with kilns and clay, incorporating that into an interdisciplinary program combining fine art with industrial technology, wood- and metal-working. She added business courses, which she said has enabled her to survive owning an art boutique and gallery.

“What’s really helped me is I’m a good businesswoman as well as an artist,” she said. “That doesn’t always go hand in hand, because lots of times artists don’t want – or know – how to sell their art. … I’ve got a pretty good handle on that, which has helped.”

A San Francisco native, Ceccarelli said she came to San Diego with her husband, then in the Navy, where they settled in South Park. The family, including daughter Kelsey, still lives in the neighborhood.

“I wanted to be in center city,” Ceccarelli said, adding that South Park both felt like being in a larger city and was affordable. “We found a really cute house that we’re still in. … We live a few blocks away.”

Celebrating 25 years left Ceccarelli talking about the past, including how much South Park has changed since she opened her stores.

“Everybody else was doing something behind closed doors in office – not retail – space,” she said, adding that the business community has seen an “uplifting” over time. “I used to keep the door locked. … It was kind of sketchy.”

Ceccarelli said the immediate area started turning around on Beech Street shortly after Studio Maureen opened. “Then Grant’s [Marketplace] and Ginseng went in about eight years ago and they anchored the street,” she said.

“Forever it’s been mixed, socio-economically,” she said. “There’s a diversity of races and sexual preferences. It’s really been quite a mix of everybody. I think artists are drawn to that open, welcoming kind of environment.”

Though Ceccarelli said she has changed along with the neighborhood, the Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery business philosophy – community building – remains unaltered.

One of those goals, showcasing affordable art, is providing a means to promote local work. Enter The Next Door Gallery, which started approximately five years after Studio Maureen.

Johanna Hansen, the gallery’s curator, said the exhibit space is her own “contribution” to the community.

“I have this wall where people can show, and I’ve just been pretty open,” she said. “If you’re an artist with a body of work, I put you on my list.”

That list, Hansen said, has been in high demand and underscores why the art gallery is so important to the community. They are currently booked through 2014.

Susan E. Roden, a recent artist, displayed “A Tiny Toyland,” featuring whitewashed sculptures of dolls and plastic animals. The exhibit, which Roden said came from her “deconstructing and reconstructing” dolls, opened Monday, Nov. 5.

“I actually started reassembling them, playing with them to see what I could create,” she said, adding that her goal was to “create a little ‘toy land’ where people could walk away from every day.”

At the Nov. 4 anniversary bash, Ceccarelli celebrated with patrons in front of the store, dancing to music spun by DJ Jon Kanis of Spin Wizard. Inside the store, kids painted sugar skulls while adults browsed and mingled.

Looking ahead, Ceccarelli said there will be more of herself in the store.

“I’ve stopped teaching classes here because I want to get back into making my own art. I haven’t had the time to do that as much, trying to juggle so many hats: teacher, proprietor [and] president of the South Park Business Group,” she said. “I want to get back to making my own art. That’s the future.”

Using the celebration as another steppingstone, Ceccarelli said she encourages people to follow a similar path with their own art, offering a bit of business advice from her 25-year success story.

“It’s not a labor of love [and] not a get-rich-quick scheme, because there’s lots of ups and downs in retail, especially when you’re dealing in art,” she said. “[But] to be surrounded by art all the time and artists – people who love art – what more could you ask for?”