Artists creating community Abby Arts Collective provides new studio space for local artists KATIE STOBBART A new shared art studio has opened in East Abbotsford, filling a gap in Abbotsford’s small-venue arts community. In some ways, Abbotsford is a city of makeshift arts venues. Its small music venues are breweries and one carport; one of its two art galleries is a small house; and studio space takes the form of second bedrooms, basements, and garages. While a few larger venues exist (Abby Arts Centre, Matsqui Auditorium, Abbotsford Centre, the Reach Gallery Museum, and the new Railway space), it can be a challenge for local professional artists to set down roots without adequate spaces to perform, showcase, and create work. It’s a widely recognized gap in the arts community, brought up
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routinely at all candidates’ meetings on culture, strategic conversations about the city’s cultural future, and at other fora for discussing local arts. It’s also a niche that guided entrepreneurial artist Jesse Klassen to build a custom shared artist studio called Abby Arts Collective. Klassen is perhaps a rare combination of artist and construction worker, but he used his experience and contacts in both worlds to construct a unique, trailblazing addition to Abbotsford’s small arts venues. The idea sparked during his personal search for a professional arts studio where he could conduct his practice, and then gained traction as he realized there was a collective need. “I saw a need I had, and looking into
