Atlanta s Young Blood Gallery & Boutique Turns 10

Atlanta’s hub of indie art, craft and design—Young Blood Gallery & Boutique—turns ten-years-old this summer. For many young creatives in Atlanta, Young Blood serves as a starting block for a career in art or craft. It is the location of many artists’ first show and many crafters’ first market. It is where people meet, team up and make their goals happen.


Young Blood started in the summer of 1997 in its earliest form, though it didn’t have its name quite yet. Kelly Teasley had just finished college as a painting major and moved to Atlanta where her high school friend, Maggie White, was finishing college. As a painting major, Kelly’s logical next step was to show slides of her work to galleries around town. “It was a horrible process,” said Kelly, “and I felt very discouraged. Most galleries were not interested in emerging or local artists even.”





Discouraged though she may have felt, Kelly didn’t quit on her desires. Instead she got together with a friend and started putting up flyers around town in art supply stores and at schools looking for artists who were interested in house art shows. They had experienced rock shows going on in people’s houses as part of the DIY music community and figured they’d try it with art shows. The response was huge and thus began the moving of the furniture to the garage every three months to make way for art shows. As they got to know more people they were able to choose artists and themes for each show. After the first few shows, a friend came up with the name as well. The artists they were collaborating with were all young and it appeared from Kelly’s experience that what the Atlanta art scene needed was fresh blood, thus the name—Young Blood.


Moving the furniture every three months finally got tiring. With such a huge interest and response, Maggie and Kelly knew they were filling a niche. With a lot of support and encouragement from Kelly’s mom, in May of 1999 they moved into a permanent space in Grant Park, an in town Atlanta neighborhood. Tucked away on a side street called Glenwood, they found a little building and were able to purchase it with help from Kelly’s mom. A lot of renovation was in order and they did what they could themselves. In the beginning, the space was rough, Maggie and Kelly both had full-time jobs and Young Blood was only open on the weekends. They spent their Saturdays and Sundays at the gallery, paid for bills out of their own pockets and sometimes had no one come in to look at the art for the whole weekend. Despite a slow start, Maggie and Kelly felt passionate about the gallery and just kept at it watching it grow.


In January of 2003, a major change for Young Blood took place. Inspired—literally—by a dream Maggie had, the girls decided to expand Young Blood to include a boutique. “The inspiration came a couple of years before - try not to laugh - when I had a dream about it,” says Maggie. “I woke up and told Kelly about this great dream where we were sitting behind a counter in this really cool store surrounded by things that were made by artists.” They later realized that they needed something to supplement the gallery’s income and that’s when the practical push took place to open the boutique.





Today, Young Blood represents artists and crafters from all over the country. Some of their best selling brands in the boutique are Small Things, Strokes Striped Socks, a*ray, Patina, My Paper Crane, Ex Libris Anonymous, Nikki McClure and Hammerpress. They host a different art exhibit in the gallery every month with an art opening the first Saturday evening of each month. Exhibits are sometimes solo shows and sometimes devoted to a specific theme such as the Plush Show last fall, where the entire gallery was covered in fabric and plush creations, and the annual SK8 or Die exhibit, where artists turn raw boards into art. In addition to monthly art openings, Young Blood hosts Kraftwork the first Thursday of every month from 7-10 p.m. Crafters can come and set up a table and sell their wares for free. Kraftwork and the art openings always have a fun party atmosphere because these events are not just about art but about running into friends and building community.





When asked about the future of Young Blood a master plan is revealed. “We’re going to support ourselves and artist all over the world,” said Maggie, “by opening all the Young Bloods we can handle from Atlanta to Zimbabwe! But first the plan is to move to a great new neighborhood and go full-time. I have a vision of running our business successfully and inspiring lots more people to get involved with their known and undiscovered talents. I’d love to get to the point where we can start using our business to benefit people who’ve had it tough and could use some help.”




Additional Words of Wisdom From Maggie & Kelly
On Why Young Blood is Important: “I think it’s important to me because I see the need it fulfills in the art community in Atlanta,” says Kelly. “Emerging artists need more spaces to show their work and start their careers. I think having an independent business in general is important, especially in Atlanta where it is filled with chain stores. And to support artists, designers and crafters because the stuff they make is way cooler than anything found in the mall. And we would live in a boring world with out artists. And well...I mean DIY means if somebody else isn’t going to do it then you gots to do it yourself...”


On Growth: “I think we’ve learned through lots of mistakes,” says Kelly, “how to grow and become a functioning business. We have a long way to go and keep dreaming upwards on how to grow. The gallery now at least supports itself-with a lot of help from the boutique. Now if we can grow more we can support ourselves!


On Indie Craft: “Wow - it’s phenomenal,” says Maggie, “and really interesting to me. It’s proof that what we’re doing is wildly contagious. And that the world is ready to get away from the watered-down way of life. Malls were born in our lifetime yet have completely taken over our lifestyles. I love it when older women come in the store and even if it’s an item that they would never buy, they can relate to and appreciate that it’s hand made. It’s great that we’re re-discovering that process of creating something. I think that indie craft is here to stay. Even though indie trends are borrowed and mass-produced there will always be something new.”


On Young Blood’s Art Exhibits: “I think all of our exhibits are awesome,” says Kelly, “and we spend a lot of time choosing them. I’m always excited to bring out of state artists here so that folks can see their work—that might not usually be able to see. And I also love supporting local artists and see their careers grow. Seeing them move on to bigger and better things gets me excited. And we usually keep in touch and they still support us as well. We usually get the Creative Loafing award for most affordable art space. I think that’s important because we always want our peers to be able to afford artwork and we teach our artists to make a range of work so everyone can afford something.”

Christy Petterson is a writer, crafter, indie craft market organizer, co-editor of Get Crafty, p.r. specialist, avid coffee drinker, passionate lover of beer, roadie for her drummer-of-a-husband and all round nice person.

Photos by Brayden Knell.