COLLECTIVE
ArtEgg
FIFTY THOUSAND SQUARE FEET OF ARTISTRY IN MID-CITY NEW ORLEANS Story by Jason Hutter • Photos by Alexandra Kennon
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nside ArtEgg, the first thing one notices is the sheer size of the place—50,000 square feet, to be precise. ArtEgg is an enormous, eclectic artists’ haven in Mid-City New Orleans where professional artists can rent long-term space. John Swincinski, an abstract expressionist oil painter, explained his attraction to the converted warehouse and why he became a tenant-artist there. “It’s because of the community here at ArtEgg; it’s good to mingle and speak with other artists who live their practice like I do,” he said. “ArtEgg gives me that. After I left the Master of Fine Arts program at LSU, I missed the simple act of bouncing ideas off likeminded people.“ As he spoke, Swincinski was finishing his latest painting of muted, misty browns and white on an oversized canvas. His recent work, he explained, illustrates his experience journeying alone in the wilderness of Montana. Around his workshop, other canvases lie in various stages of completion. Swincinski stated that his
frequent trips into wild solitude give him the isolation he needs to translate his sensory experience into oil on canvas. “These paintings are about so much more than the landscape … they are about memory. They intend to capture the emotional content of events previously unfolded before me,” Swincinski said. “There is the experience I had and the one that I remember. The paintings represent the latter.” Like many of the professional artist-tenants of ArtEgg, Swincinski’s artistic output finds its way directly into galleries locally and across the country—particularly New Orleans' Gryder Gallery, where he is represented. Before the building was ArtEgg, it had undergone several incarnations. According to owner Dr. Esther Dyer’s research, the property was first owned by H.G. Hill Stores, who first opened their doors in Nashville, Tennessee in September 1922. The property then became the Loubat Frank
Warehouse, the largest produce company in the region. It also sold American Beauty products, thus earning it the nickname the “American Beauty Warehouse”. After Dyer purchased the building in 2001, renovation began almost immediately, and she playfully renamed the building “ArtEgg”— an homage to the iconic “Everybody Loves a Good Egg” sign that overlooks Mid-City, which Dyer had restored, and a hint at what the building’s future would be under Dyer’s stewardship. As for Dyer, she had her dream. Originally from New York, she graduated from Columbia University with a doctorate in library sciences. She eventually became a member of The National Arts Club in New York City, where she lived for over forty years. While there,
she developed a deeper understanding of the intricate links between art and commerce, and began to envision a design for a place where both could meet and prosper. Having had a second home in New Orleans since
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