Second Story Studio ~ story and photos by Chrissy Alspaugh
Kurt Eagleman, owner of Second Story Studio.
With Brown County art and nature coloring the canvas of his childhood, contemporary painter Kurt Eagleman is back home and breathing reimagined life into an iconic gallery.
He opened Second Story Studio on the upper level of the Village Green building, 61 West Main Street in Nashville. For decades, the space has featured the work of Hoosier artists, formerly housing B3 Gallery and before that Ferrer Gallery.
Eagleman has re-designed the 2,000-squarefoot space into three distinct worlds-in-one: an exhibition gallery, gallery shop, and an intimate lounge for artists and community members to collaborate, learn, and create.
The gallery shop continues to feature the work of many of the artists the public has loved there in the past. Eagleman also welcomes new contemporary artists and those often under-represented in the art community.
“ Art needs to be accessible for everyone,” Eagleman said.“ Removing roadblocks and making it inviting is really what I want to stand for.”
Eagleman was born in Brown County: his mother is an artist with whom he still collaborates, and his father is an interpretive naturalist and writer. As a child, Kurt was taught and mentored by renowned Brown County painter Patricia Rhoden Bartels. In the decades that followed, studying and working at Indiana University, Venice, Italy, New York, and Dallas took the budding young artist away from his home art community.
Eagleman found himself traveling between Dallas and Brown County during COVID. With the nudging of a friend, he opened a pop-up shop showcasing local artists in October 2020 called Ee Oh Lay Studio.“ It was just for fun. There was an end date. There was no pressure,” Eagleman said.“ The
24 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2024