The Art Room - It’s All About

In the Community

It’s All About the Experience

By Karen L. Chandler

Brian Adams believes The Art Room is a missing piece of the puzzle in West Reading. Despite the borough being filled with food, drinks, and a multitude of businesses, his passion is to bring the joy of creativity to everyone who lives in, works in, or visits the area.

“I thought something like this would give people more of a quality of living,” Adams said. “You need a place where you can sit and express yourself.”

After a decade spent in the high pressure and frequently superficial life of an executive shopper at Bloomingdales, Adams chose to make a drastic life change by engaging his creativity and making people feel better about themselves through art.

The Governor Mifflin grad moved to West Reading about two years ago and opened The Art Room in February of 2021.

Entering Adams’ shop means an explosion of color meets the eye, with projects created by Adams available for purchase, in addition to original paintings in the front “Wow” room by both Adams and Louise Candelaria, co-owner of Penn Avenue’s Finch + Fern.

Special to the main work room space are paintings on display for inspiration and purchase by local artist Charles Fick, an indication of Adams’ New Year focus on working with and encouraging people with disabilities to create art.

On the exterior wall adjacent to the shop, Adams has invited people who live or work in West Reading to paint murals, but he reserved about thirty more feet for his customers to “do their own thing.”

Adams credits his passion for his craft to family tradition. “My mom was heavily into painting ceramics. It’s a sentimental thing,” he said. “It’s all about my family and tradition. It’s a way to make memories.”

Bringing his high-end retail background to his business means that Adams has focused on specialty ceramics, using molds to create customers’ projects that are mostly all one-of-a-kind, with some molds dating back to 1945. Adams said, “No one will ever have these. They’re special.”

The ever-popular vintage ceramic Christmas trees went gangbusters at The Art Room over the Christmas holiday. Customer demand added up to over one hundred trees poured into true vintage ceramic molds, heading out for special gifts and decorations.

Expecting the craze to continue will bring trees painted for other holidays, accompanied by everyone’s favorite gnomes, created for everything from St. Patrick’s Day to Halloween.

And Adams pours each item into molds himself, a cumbersome process of mixing the liquid clay, pouring it into one of his many molds, and allowing for several days of drying, sanding, and firing time.

The colors and textures customers can choose to apply to their projects are housed in the back room, or Paint Palace, in little pots of high-quality paint that create a big array of applications to look like anything ranging from native pottery to Italian glass.

“I have the biggest paint selection ever. It’s so crazy. Glaze looks gray or black and turns color in firing. You just paint it on and people wouldn’t believe you made it,” Adams said.

Customers to The Art Room can walk right in on a day they need a little dose of creativity and self-expression, but parties up to 30 guests of all ages can gather in the WOW room overlooking Penn Avenue, with reservations recommended for five or more participants in a gathering.

A growing trend is for brides-to-be to pick out molds for dishes, mugs, or décor for their new homes and bring in their bachelorette party or bridal shower to create every piece custom.

Projects need not just be ceramics since Adams offers wooden options like trinket boxes and signs, small decorative mirrors that only require frames to be designed, and canvas painting which can include a pour and paint technique guided by Adams.

Always thinking of his fellow West Reading business owners, Adams continues to hold collaboration events as varied as a cake decorating demonstration by Ady’s Cakes, followed up by participants creating their own covered cake dish, a makeup tutorial by Tina’s Salon where attendees painted their own makeup brush holders, and a glass painting project with Chatty Monks for customers to decorate glasses adorned with both The Continued on next page

In the Community

Art Room and Chatty Monks logos that can be returned to Chatty Monks for free French fries.

New and different collaborations are in the works, including projects with neighbors like The Gem on Penn, Bella Jules, and Winedown Café.

“I want everyone to cross-reference and understand all our stores,” Adams said.

Upcoming at The Art Room is more focus on outside space with an outdoor pottery room on its way to add to the tents, tables, and photo opps all ready to go for warm months.

No matter the project or a customer’s level of artistic ability, Adams just wants everyone to relax and experience the peacefulness of self-expression, alone or with friends.

“The Art Room is all about the experience,” Adams said. “I really want people to come in here and hang out.”

The Art Room - 633 Penn Avenue, West Reading

610-898-4369 Hours: Wednesdays, 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., Thursday through Saturday, 12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Sundays, 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.