Kaleidoscope Studios

Profile by Alex Kasel

Photography and Photo Editing by Alex Kasel

Luck of the Draw: the unexpected space bringing more art to Irving Ave.

As I write this profile, it's only been about six months since Kaleidoscope opened its unassuming doors on Irving Avenue in Bushwick. You’d never know it. I attended their first gallery opening in April for the paintings of Kati Kirsch and Sean Terrell (a stunning show in which motorized fluffy bunnies roamed the space). The show brought in a crowd of more than four hundred people. So how did this group of three women and nonbinary folks in their twenties turn a commercial space into a self-sustaining and thriving arts community? I spoke with founders Pat Lin, Emma Prinsen, and Sarah Neides.

Kaleidoscope beat the odds to become what it is today. It was Pat, living nearby, who happened to catch that the apparel company previously inhabiting the space was holding a moving sale, meaning the space would become available. Now, commercial leases, especially in big cities, usually range from five to twenty years. The landlord of this space, who also owns Pat’s building, believed in her, Emma, and Sarah’s vision for the space, and against strong advice from his lawyer, gave them just a three-month trial lease on the space. Emma knew that it was going to work out within the first week of signing the lease, as people filtered in, bringing ideas and energy to the space.

Kaleidoscope has private and shared studios, and is currently building out a tech shop in the garage that will allow for woodworking, ceramics, and a darkroom. Some of their events have become community staples, attracting the same crowd week after week. One of these is James' collage nights on Wednesdays. The owner of Hog Time Vintage, he brings in vintage Playboys to work with.

Emma, Sarah, and Pat all have backgrounds in art. While they all work and experiment with many mediums, Pat says, "being invested in the people and building this as a community space is the art form that I prefer to think about exploring right now.”

On the name:

Sarah: So I was trying to meditate on it, just laying in my bed like please, tell me what to name it. And this voice said, “It is already named.” So I was like, uhhh okay? And then I fell asleep and I had this dream where somebody really close to me, their grandmother died, and when she died, her soul ascended and became a part of this tapestry of stained glass like a kaleidoscope in the sky. And then the next morning I went on Instagram and I saw that that person’s grandmother actually had died that night, so I texted him and told him about the dream.

On community spaces:

Pat: One of the biggest things that I think about being young but also the generation that is growing up now is that there are so many things about the way society is structured that feel like we don’t have access to it or we’re not welcome in it. So I love this and what you guys [Scatterbrain] is doing. If we’re not going to be able to function within the existing structures then we’re just going to make our own stuff. It's truly like we’re crafting our own avenue right now, we’re crafting our own platform.

On the future of Kaleidoscope:

Sarah: Just keep expanding.

Pat: I want this to be open for so long that even if me, Sarah, and Emma are no longer running it, the space itself just exists and there are people here still keeping it going like it’s its own entity–it’s part of the block now.

Emma: A residency program upstate!

On the landlord:

Pat: He used to own a restaurant on this block, so I think this block means a lot to him. He really romanticized the energy we could bring to the block with the people we could attract and the events we would throw. I think he was just like please, please, please bring something that gives back to this space. And we were like absolutely, that’s all we wanna do.