lionheART Bridgeport offers new gallery space for local artists
The newest addition to Fairfield County”™s art scene is lionheART Bridgeport, a gallery that opened Nov. 11 in the Bijou Square complex at 277 Fairfield Ave. in Bridgeport.
Evan Bieder, the gallery”™s owner, is a newcomer to the entrepreneurial world. He coaches students at Westport”™s Green Stars Academy in cross-country and has engaged in several side hustles, including a gig as a driver for a Mr. Softee ice cream truck at Bridgeport”™s Seaside Park. His interest in artistic expression and exhibition pointed him to creating his business.
“I’ve been painting for five or six years, and painting has been a tradition in my family for a while,” Bieder, who graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in government in 2015, said. “My dad is a painter and art teacher in Stamford and my grandma had an art gallery in Pound Ridge, New York. My great-grandma was a painter as well. I just loved painting, and I love sharing painting with people and having some sense of artistic community.”
Bieder intends to use lionheART Bridgeport as a forum for local artists to find new audiences. His premier show was staged in conjunction with the Bridgeport Art Trail, and he plans to rotate exhibitions on a monthly basis. All works being exhibited are available for purchase, with Bieder enabling the artists to set their own sales prices.
“I am definitely open to all different types,” said Bieder regarding the works he plans to exhibit. “I personally gravitate more towards abstract or impressionist work, but realist work is great, too, and I’m happy to show any work ”” especially by Bridgeport residents. I want it to be a local community space.”
Bieder”™s Nov. 11 opening was on the cozy side ”” he estimated about 20 people participated, and he placed more value on the quality of connections established at the event rather than the number of attendees.
“It was fun,” he continued. “It’s nice to see artists come together who don’t know each other and talk about their work. Friends and family come and get to see somebody they love and care about have work up on the wall.”
Bieder is setting lionheART”™s initial schedule as being open to the public on Sundays from 2 to 6 p.m., with an opening event once a month on Saturday afternoon and private viewings during the week by appointment.
In addition to the gallery, he has established what he calls an “arts and social justice library” in one of the gallery spaces for visitors to check out books. Bieder said the crux of the library comes from books he began collecting while in high school, adding that his grandfather was a Bridgeport attorney focused on social justice issues.
“He was always looking out for the underdog and the little man, so that’s being done in his memory, too,” Bieder added.
Bieder”™s goals for lionheART Bridgeport are to gain 501(c)3 nonprofit status for his endeavor and to become an active part of Bridgeport”™s art scene.
“Everybody I’ve met since I opened up has been super friendly and welcoming with advice and mentorship,” he said.
Bieder came to his space via Phil Kuchma, president of Kuchma Corp. and the owner of the Bijou Square complex. For Kuchma, having a tenant like lionheART Bridgeport is important for both the local economy and quality of life.
“I actually started City Lights Gallery 18 years ago as a for-profit gallery downtown,” he said. “We have a very much higher than average percentage of our tenants who are creative economy types of businesses. Most of those are in fact involved in either art or music or creating other things, such as website designers and a photography studio.”
Bieder”™s next-door neighbors on his second-floor berth at Bijou Square include the new headquarters of WPKN-FM, which recently relocated from its longtime home at the University of Bridgeport, and the office of Gary Peterson, who runs the ground-floor Bijou Theatre. Upstairs from Bieder is the studio of Amanda Soltis, who creates art under the name of Twig Lips.
“Arts and culture can turn around neighborhoods,” Kuchma said.