#5: Finding a Happy (Third) Place
Are art studios the solution for finding community outside of work and home?
It’s the middle of summer, I’m shuttling between home and the hospital, and I’ve been thinking a lot about where across my thirty years I’ve been the happiest. First examining phases of life and favorite destinations, then remembering specific places where I felt most inspired and challenged and loved and accepted. There are several through the years, though none so life-changing as my high school art studio. This was the first space where community and individuality converged, where risks were rewarded (or learned from) and the stakes were low. Experimentation was applauded and cultivating one’s intuition and distinct point-of-view was prized. Basically everything society and work have tried to program out of us.
That might be why New York-based Happy Medium has been on my radar for a while. The art supply startup turned studio describes itself as a brand for the casual artist. They host a variety of events and workshops across mediums including pottery, collage, and woodworking. A modern salon sans pretension. I want to go so badly.
Especially intriguing to me: Happy Medium is an incredible and generative response to our Third Place Problem. That is, we have home, we have work––the blurry line between the two is compounding the dilemma––but where do we go to play? To meet new people? Coffee shops, sure, but our screens are usually shields to extracurricular socializing. Club sports and gyms don’t seem passively diverting or intentional enough. Plus, third spaces are meant to eschew productivity and invite random conversation regardless of economic background. Amateur art studios are a very cool solution.
From a consumer standpoint, I think the emphasis on casual artistry and the relatively low price point for studio time1 make the experience more approachable. And Garrett Elizabeth Office hit the mark with brand identity and art direction. Makes me want to grab a paint brush.
I wonder if we’ll see more creative third spaces like this pop up in the future. I’m probably biased, but Happy Medium in fact looks like a Happy Place.
Approx $20 for 2 hours of studio time, which isn’t perfectly in line with the third space’s minimal cost to entry qualification, but, like, in Manhattan this is close??