{"id":245555,"date":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/building-up-south-park-for-25-years\/"},"modified":"2012-11-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-11-09T08:00:00","slug":"building-up-south-park-for-25-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/building-up-south-park-for-25-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Building up South Park for 25 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery celebrate anniversary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por David Schwab | Reportero SDUN\"Building<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried to make my store a place where people can come in and say, \u2018hi,\u2019 and they don\u2019t have to buy something,\u201d Ceccarelli said. \u201cThat\u2019s an important piece of what I do here: build community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor so long, I really didn\u2019t make any money,\u201d the storeowner said. \u201cI was selling my jewelry and that was my main source of income. I didn\u2019t picture this happening, where it would grow into something bigger, becoming a community hub.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really helped me is I\u2019m a good businesswoman as well as an artist,\u201d she said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t always go hand in hand, because lots of times artists don\u2019t want \u2013 or know \u2013 how to sell their art. \u2026 I\u2019ve got a pretty good handle on that, which has helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be in center city,\u201d Ceccarelli said, adding that South Park both felt like being in a larger city and was affordable. \u201cWe found a really cute house that we\u2019re still in. \u2026 We live a few blocks away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrating 25 years left Ceccarelli talking about the past, including how much South Park has changed since she opened her stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody else was doing something behind closed doors in office \u2013 not retail \u2013 space,\u201d she said, adding that the business community has seen an \u201cuplifting\u201d over time. \u201cI used to keep the door locked. \u2026 It was kind of sketchy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceccarelli said the immediate area started turning around on Beech Street shortly after Studio Maureen opened. \u201cThen Grant\u2019s [Marketplace] and Ginseng went in about eight years ago and they anchored the street,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cForever it\u2019s been mixed, socio-economically,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a diversity of races and sexual preferences. It\u2019s really been quite a mix of everybody. I think artists are drawn to that open, welcoming kind of environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Ceccarelli said she has changed along with the neighborhood, the Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery business philosophy \u2013 community building \u2013 remains unaltered.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Johanna Hansen, the gallery\u2019s curator, said the exhibit space is her own \u201ccontribution\u201d to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this wall where people can show, and I\u2019ve just been pretty open,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you\u2019re an artist with a body of work, I put you on my list.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Susan E. Roden, a recent artist, displayed \u201cA Tiny Toyland,\u201d featuring whitewashed sculptures of dolls and plastic animals. The exhibit, which Roden said came from her \u201cdeconstructing and reconstructing\u201d dolls, opened Monday, Nov. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually started reassembling them, playing with them to see what I could create,\u201d she said, adding that her goal was to \u201ccreate a little \u2018toy land\u2019 where people could walk away from every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Ceccarelli said there will be more of herself in the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve stopped teaching classes here because I want to get back into making my own art. I haven\u2019t had the time to do that as much, trying to juggle so many hats: teacher, proprietor [and] president of the South Park Business Group,\u201d she said. \u201cI want to get back to making my own art. That\u2019s the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a labor of love [and] not a get-rich-quick scheme, because there\u2019s lots of ups and downs in retail, especially when you\u2019re dealing in art,\u201d she said. \u201c[But] to be surrounded by art all the time and artists \u2013 people who love art \u2013 what more could you ask for?\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studio Maureen & The Next Door Gallery celebrate anniversary By Dave Schwab | SDUN Reporter 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 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Building up South Park for 25 years","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}