Brewhouse Gallery
When AJ Brockman was moving into the empty Lake Park storefront he leased in early 2014, his straightforward goal was to “create a space for artists,” he says.
He’s done that and much more with The Brewhouse Gallery, where he is throwing a birthday bash from noon to midnight on May 16 to mark the first year and to celebrate an expansion whose centerpiece is an indoor 30-foot mural wall.
The artist space Brockman envisioned is also a beer garden, live music and events venue, and all-around creative gathering place that is part of a renaissance for the quiet village of Lake Park in northern Palm Beach County.
“This has all been happening so fast that it’s really kind of blowing my mind — the whole time frame of it all,” says Brockman, 26, who has some background in the business of culture but had never before run a venue.
Brockman is the founder of what he calls a “pipe and cigar apparel company,” called StacheWarden, that sells accessories and items modeled on the look and feel of the vintage smoke shop. With his own extravagantly waxed ‘stache, Brockman looks like a hipster incarnation of a 19th Century shopkeeper.
He’s also a visual artist, working in digital media, who has exhibited at galleries and juried exhibitions. Since launching Brewhouse, he’s added art dealer, talent booker and event planner to his portfolio.
That he’s done this while also confined to a wheelchair is all the more remarkable, but Brockman doesn’t emphasize his personal history with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which has kept him wheelchair-bound since age 2. His focus is on his work.
“I always wanted to kind of have my own art gallery,” says Brockman, who grew up in South Florida conscious of the region’s hit-or-miss history with establishing sustainable arts communities.
He went south to look at real estate around Miami’s Wynwood District, which has flourished in tandem with the popularity of Art Basel Miami, but the fit wasn’t right.
Closer to home, in Lake Park, he found what he needed — affordable space and people who endorsed artistic entrepreneurship as a building block of the economy.
“The city was very supportive of what we’re trying to do,” says Brockman.
Lake Park offered affordable housing, and a falling crime rate. What it needed, says Brockman, was for artists and businesses to start coming aboard to help with the revival and to begin establishing Lake Park as a destination.
“And to be honest with you, it’s happening,” says Brockman.
He sees Lake Park following — up to a point — along the paths taken by Lake Worth and downtown West Palm Beach, where entertainment and night life prompted neighborhood turnarounds. But he’s not looking to pioneer another bustling downtown.
“We’re not in a giant commercial district; you have to know where we are, and that adds to the allure,” he says.
Visual art remains Brockman’s first priority: “That’s the goal of everything, to support artists 100 percent.”
He charges a flat rental rate, with no commissions, to local artists who display works for sale. He estimates that 90 percent of those who have signed up have made money over and above their rent.
He said beer and wine — and then live music as well as comedy and themed events — grew out of gallery traffic. The stage occupies a corner nook, with intersecting art-covered walls unfolding on either side.
Brockman says it’s the kind of performance space where the audience tunes in and musicians are not battling the din. He books performers and composers of original music over covers artists because “it fits our mantra and our mission of the original art on the walls.”
As attendance grew in the first months, he kept an eye on his next door neighbor, a struggling convenience store that looked to be on its last legs — and did go out of business about six months after Brockman arrived.
“The landlord made me a great offer,” he says.
Brockman says his most important business partner is his mother, who, like him, had no background in hospitality. But she had worked in sales for 30 years was and was able to help with seed money.
“She is the main reason we were able to pull this off,” Brockman wrote in a follow-up exchange online. “My vision but her support. None of us were in the biz whatsoever, she was ready to retire and now we have created a monster.”
The One Year Party launches May 16 with Speaking Volumes, Sweet Bronco, Smith Sundy, Shotgun Betty, Raggy Monster, The Whiskey Wasps, The Psymatics, Fireside Prophets, Ella Herrera, The Inverted PLUS Art, Live Music, Craft Beer and Food Trucks.
RSVP
SET TIMES
· Victoria Leigh – 12:30 to 1:20
· The Whiskey Wasps – 1:35 to 2:25
· The Psymatics – 2:40 to 3:30
· Fireside Prophets – 3:45 to 4:45
· The Inverted – 5:00 to 6:00
· Smith Sundy – 6:15 to 7:15
· Shotgun Betty – 7:30 to 8:30
· Sweet Bronco – 8:45 to 9:45
· Raggy Monster – 10:00 to 11:00
· Speaking Volumes – 11:15 to Close
FOOD TRUCKS
· Diner Dogs Inc. (12 noon)
· Parabas Grill (7 PM)
VENDORS
· Purehoney Magazine
· Vintage Iron Club
· Autumn Skye – Art Gallery & Custom Tattoo
· South Florida Cornhole
· Lugnut Customs Service Station
· Black Coral Rum
· Live painting from airbrush artist Paul
· Live painting from Craig McInnis
· Live painting from Kevin Goff
BREWERIES (Tap’n somethin special every hour)
· Funky Buddha Brewery
· Cigar City Brewing
· Civil Society Brewing
~Sean Piccoli
