From Garage to Gallery: How I Built Something From a Blank Canvas

The blank canvas

Sky Blue Gallery started as an empty garage—bare walls, concrete floor, no lights good enough for art. I wanted a space that could hold South Dallas stories with dignity and still move like a pop-up. No grant, no staff, just a vision and a community that raised me.

The first 90 days: roadmap + structure

I treated the launch like producing a show:

1. Purpose & pillars (week 1):

   • Why we exist: make Black cultural memory feel present and usable.

   • Pillars: artist care, community access, production discipline, and youth pathways.

2. Space plan (weeks 1–2):

   • Modular ProPanels, safe hanging, clean cable runs, portable lighting.

   • Clear audience flow, ADA-minded layout, street-to-door wayfinding.

3. Ops toolkit (weeks 2–4):

   • Reusable templates: budget, Gantt schedule, run-of-show, crew calls, safety plan, label standards.

   • Intake forms (consignment/loan), basic registrar workflows, insurance checklist.

4. Program calendar (weeks 3–6):

   • One anchor exhibition, one workshop block, one talk.

   • “Open studio Saturdays” for neighbors; “quiet hours” for families with sensory needs.

5. Brand & comms (weeks 4–8):

   • A simple brand playbook (voice, captions, credits, alt-text), media kit folder, and a two-month editorial calendar.

6. Community advisory circle (weeks 5–9):

   • A small table of artists, educators, and elders to sanity-check ideas and invite partners early.

7. Soft open → public open (weeks 8–12):

   • Quiet preview for neighbors and artists first; then a public opening with a clear run-of-show.

     
     

How I brought people in

• Artists: transparent scopes, fair fees or revenue splits, humane timelines.

• Neighbors: flyered the block, knocked doors, and asked what hours they wanted.

• Youth: “learn the wall” sessions—hands-on hanging, label writing, and lighting basics.

• Partners: museums, galleries, schools, and churches, positioned as co-hosts, not just venues.

• Crew: volunteers + paid assistants with defined roles, briefings, and debriefs (what worked/what didn’t).

  
  

The first big build

The gallery’s opening sequence paired Life in Black Ink with community workshops and a small marketplace. It wasn’t just a show; it was a system. Each event ran on the same toolkit, so quality stayed high even when the team changed. That structure let us move quickly into traveling showcases (Nashville) and the Congressional Black Caucus marketplace in DC—keeping the work grounded in South Dallas while opening doors beyond it.

The pivot moment

After a few months, I realized something: people loved the gallery nights, but many of the folks I most wanted to reach—parents, elders, students—couldn’t always get to us. Transportation, schedules, childcare… the barrier wasn’t interest; it was access.

So I pivoted from “come to the gallery” to “the gallery will come to you.”That decision became the MatchBox Mobile Exhibitions—modular rigs we could build in schools, churches, libraries, or lobbies. I wrote a Mobile Exhibitions Instruction Manual: packing lists, ProPanel layouts, stabilization, hanging plans, label standards, and front-of-house scripts. We tested dry-runs, documented what broke, made it lighter, safer, faster. The same playbook that stabilized a garage gallery now powered pop-ups anywhere.

What changed:

• Hours shifted to family-friendly blocks.

• Programming added onsite talks and hands-on mini-labs.

• Partners became co-programmers, not just hosts.

• Impact widened—meeting people where they were, not where we wished they could be.

  
  

What I learned from the pivot

• Access isn’t an add-on; it’s the design brief. If the system excludes, the story can’t land.

• Operations are a creative act. Budgets, schedules, and safety plans are part of the artwork because they decide who gets to experience it.

• Co-ownership beats attendance. When neighbors hang the show, write labels, or staff the door, the work belongs to the community—and it lasts.

• Small, repeatable wins scale farther than one big splash. A tight toolkit turns a local idea into a traveling platform.''

  
  

The through line

Whether I’m producing exhibitions at the African American Museum, Dallas, building Sky Blue Gallery with Simone, painting murals with partners, or stepping into Producing Director, Artistic Experiences at Forest Forward, the approach is the same:Artists protected. Crews respected. Audiences reflected.Tell the truth beautifully—and build the systems that let everyone see it.