Artist-preneur Heather Lane stands outside Byrdies, her studio/gallery/cafe on St. Claude Avenue.
Walk through the front door of Byrdie’s and walk into your own living room. Owner Heather Lane wants nothing more than to make you feel at home in what has become her second home, Byrdie’s Gallery, Studio, and Café. It is a place where you can relax, repose, chat with friends on a comfortable couch, read a borrowed book, surf the web, ponder artwork, play a board game, or simply sit quietly and feel at peace after, or perhaps before, a long day.
A transplant from Elk Grove, California, Ms. Lane arrived in New Orleans two weeks prior to Hurricane Katrina. She immediately felt a connection to the city through its people and its culture. After an abrupt evacuation, she eagerly returned to study at Tulane University.
Lane graduated from Tulane in May 2009 with two degrees, one in Business and one in Ceramics. Some thought her choices odd, even incongruous, when she told them of her seemingly unrelated topics of study, but their union could not have manifested themselves more appropriately. In May 2010, Lane opened her doors at Byrdie’s Gallery, Studio, and Café at 2422 St. Claude Avenue, in the St. Claude Arts District in the Bywater.
While enjoying the multi-functional space at Byrdie’s, it is easy to wonder what came first. Is Heather Lane a coffee and tea guru, a gallery curator, or a ceramicist? “Art, art, art,” is her reply. “I originally wanted only a ceramics studio,” explains Lane, “but there was just so much space left over… and being on a street filled with galleries, I thought I should use some of that space to showcase artwork as well.”
Still confounded by the question of what to do with yet even more space left to use, Lane found inspiration in her interest at that time in firing ceramic coffee mugs and teapots. So, she created a “coffee shop and tea room café” with the remaining area. Thus was born the thriving, inviting, multi-dimensional Byrdie’s Gallery, Studio, and Café.
When at Byrdie’s, the three ideas blend together so harmoniously that it becomes difficult not to wonder why all studios are not galleries, and why all galleries are not cafés. Each component complements the others and all work together to produce a feeling of completeness, generating an overall mood of tranquility and contentment. So much so, in fact, that it no longer seems to matter which of the ideas came first. Lane defies the need for any such labels—barista, curator or artist — and instead embodies all three in an exquisitely balanced manner that creates a welcoming spot to relax for all patrons and residents.
Beyond her mission to craft a space where peace and creativity rule, Ms. Lane also hopes that Byrdie’s is and will continue to be a central place in her community. She hopes for it to “draw people together from surrounding areas as a hub for meeting up, so all the neighbors will think of Byrdie’s as their living room, too.”
In order to bring more people together, Lane has planned a series of upcoming events. Not only does Byrdie’s host gallery openings featuring new artists the second Saturday of every month and pottery and ceramics classes on Wednesday evenings, Lane is also preparing to host “proper High Tea on Sundays, costumes encouraged, and family and friends game night on Thursdays.”
More than a space for residents and neighbors to gather, Lane wants Byrdie’s to be a place where they can give back. To that end, Byrdie’s is hosting an Art Supply Drive throughout the month of March. All arts and crafts donations will be collected at Byrdie’s and redistributed to local schools and neighborhood art organizations. Kid-friendly art supplies will be donated to AP Tureaud in Treme and St. Paul’s Lutheran in Bywater.
Lane says the schools will be happy to receive any art supply donations, but “are most in need of simple supplies like crayons, glue, scissors, sparkles, and anything else that captures the imagination of elementary school-aged children,” while professional art supplies will be given to a new nonprofit in the Marigny, Recycle for the Arts.
The Art Supply Drive and Byrdie’s itself is part of a larger community, a collective known as The ReUse District encompassing five neighborhoods including the 7th Ward, Bywater, Faubourg Marigny, St. Roch and St. Claude.
The ReUse District is a collaborative effort of four like-minded organizations: founding member The Green Project, New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Rebuilding Together New Orleans, and Marigny Green. It came about through a conversation between five businesses, the above mentioned four together with St. Claude Main Street, in October 2009.
Although each business employs a slightly different approach to recycling and creatively reusing materials, they recognized they were all working toward the same goal. In an effort to harness the transformative power of local businesses supporting one another in a common cause, The ReUse District officially began in January 2010.
The ReUse District currently consists of 24 businesses, organizations, and artists throughout the five neighborhoods that hold re-use and recycling of old materials as a central tenant within their occupations. It is always looking to add new members devoted to cultivating a culture which highlights the inherent value of recycled objects and the imaginative re-purposing of materials. Members of The ReUse District include thrift stores, used tire stores, artists who work with recycled and reclaimed materials, and galleries, studios, and cafés like Byrdie’s, whose collection of furnishings and supplies owes almost its entirety to repurposed and re-used materials.
Each month, The ReUse District features a ReUse District business as its member of the month and joins them in supporting a positive community cause. March’s member of the month is Byrdie’s Gallery, Studio, and Café as The ReUse District celebrates its creative recycling of found materials, efforts at bringing the community together, and March’s Art Supply Donations Drive. As proud owner of Byrdie’s and representative chairwoman for small businesses within The ReUse District, Heather Lane invites you to stop by her multi-faceted gallery, studio, and café space, enjoy the relaxing atmosphere, get involved, and above all, make yourself at home.
Byrdie’s Gallery, Studio, and Café is located at 2422 St. Claude Avenue and is open from 10 A.M. to 7:30 P.M. six days a week. It is closed Tuesdays. All art supply donations can be dropped off anytime during business hours.
Any business who would like to become a member of The ReUse District may contact Beth at The Green Project.
