The Clark Gallery was packing up on Thursday.
(Editor’s note: this story was updated on April 23 to include a comment from Christina Van Vleck.)
The Clark Gallery in the Mall at Lincoln Station is moving across Lincoln Road to the recently refurbished commercial space on the ground floor of 2 Lewis St. and may open in their new location as early as next week.
Geoff McGean, executive director of the Rural Land Foundation, which owns the mall, confirmed the move. The gallery was a tenant at will in its 1,400-square-foot space and will not be liable for any future lease payments.
The 2,300-square-foot space that the gallery will occupy includes a kitchenette and ADA-compliant bathrooms, according to the property’s website.
Van Vleck and her husband began renovating the upper floors of the distinctive Lewis Street property (also known as the 1870 Wyman Cook House) in late 2016 with the plan that their family would live there. Last year, they started renovating the retail space on the building’s east side adjacent to the railroad tracks after the MassDOT field office, travel agency, and barber shop left, and Lincoln Cleaners moved to 10 Lewis St. with an entrance abutting the tracks.
Clark Gallery owner Dana Salvo said he was in talks with the Lewis Street owners from very early in the renovation planning and wouldn’t have signed the 10-year lease unless he could occupy both units on the ground floor. “I don’t think they imagined one tenant” at the outset, “but it was good timing — when they knew they were going to have just one tenant, it really opened up what they could do with the space upstairs,” he said. “They’ve done such a good job with that building. They have a really good eye and a good vision.”
“We received a great deal of interest in the space,” Van Vleck said. “Given that septic constraints currently preclude any food service establishments, the gallery feels like a wonderful opportunity to welcome the community in to experience the newly renovated space and enjoy the beautiful artwork featured in the gallery’s collection.
The 1,375-square-foot commercial space on the second floor is occupied by a tech start-up run by a local Lincoln business owner, she said.
A Lincoln Road view of the renovated space.
The goal for the new Clark Gallery space is not necessarily to attract a higher volume of visitors, “but it just allows us to program a bit differently,” Salvo said. “Contemporary art is a really small niche — I don’t get a lot of foot traffic. People that come are intentional.”
One of the things he didn’t have before is the brick patio along Lincoln Road, which might accommodate outdoor seating and one or more Clark sculptures. Three of its sculptures are now on the lawn in front of the restaurant, he noted.
“I like being in Lincoln in a destination space and that’s not really changing. It’s not like I’m moving” out of town, said Salvo, noting that the gallery has been in the mall for about 30 years.
The RLF is looking for a new tenant for the Clark Gallery’s former mall space and “we’ll be focused initially on trying to find a retail tenant,” McGean said. “We continue to look at all options for improving the vibrancy of Lincoln Station.”