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EVENTS 36 MOVIE REVIEWS 37 SIDE DISH 40 FACES & PLACES 41 PAWS & CLAWS 42 Arts&Entertainment
A Home for the Artisans
New showroom allows Flathead Valley’s craftsmen and women to converge as a creative collective
WBY TRISTAN SCOTT OF THE BEACON
hen Jenn Prunty divined the model for her next business venture, she envisioned a salon of skilled artisans showcasing their
wares while homeowners browse a one-stop furnish- ing-and-design shop. She imagined a space where the conference room doubles as an art exhibit and blown- glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling; a showroom where even the barn-wood walls and window frames inspire a creative and artistic verve; a marketplace where custom recess light xtures blend seamlessly with spackled river rock.
The upshot is The Artisans’ Home Showroom and Creative Space, a sort of Pinterest page with a pulse, and a panopticon of a gallery that is preparing for its grand opening Jan. 18.
The consortium of craftsmen, artists and skilled laborers has converged on the Sierra Paci c Windows building o of U.S. Highway 2 East, a complex owned by Scott Duncan, where Prunty has set up shop in hopes of brokering relationships and building rapport among the artists on display and within the community in need, while building o the needs and niches of homeowners, buyers and builders.
The recently furnished showroom is designed to mirror a living space and can accommodate the cre- ations of between eight and 10 artisans. It’s adorned with custom doors of reclaimed barn wood, ornate cabi- netry, vessel sinks, wall art, metal and iron, blown glass, reclaimed furniture, bathroom vanities, wall sconces, oor lamps, chandeliers, wall totems and iron railings.
Prunty, whose experience working with the Mon- tana Timber Association put her in touch with a net- work of journeymen and women, says the consortium is hand-selected, resulting in a “cool-kid club” of carefully vetted artists adept at catering to big-ticket projects and smaller custom crafts.
“There is so much talent in our valley, and the idea here is to provide a space where those complementary skills and trades can play together while the artisans
Jenn Prunty, owner of The Artisans’ Home Creative north of Kalispell. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
build o one another,” Prunty said.
The motto, “Be Original, Buy Local,” describes
Prunty’s philosophy that the sum of the Flathead Val- ley’s artisanal parts is a uid gure, and her roots in small-town America instilled a strong sense of commu- nity within her.
“I grew up in a small town where people looked out for each other, where it wasn’t about how you dressed or what you said your beliefs were but how you treated oth- ers that mattered,” Prunty said. “I worked for a builder for seven or eight years and what I miss most are the relationships that I built with the people that worked behind the scenes to build homes. When we look at a
house we see various objects assembled together to cre- ate a functionable space.”
“But when you deconstruct the objects,” she contin- ued, “and listen to the stories that created these pieces, you get privy to the secrets of the trade and become better connected to your home.”
Those stories are told by the showroom’s current suite of six artists: Lee Proctor, a glass blower and iron forger; Val Eve, who constructs wall totems; Jeremiah Bernt, who builds custom doors and woodworking; Wendy Reed Miller, who creates nature-inspired sink vessels; Joe Gallagher, whose reclaimed barn wood creations tell the story of the half-dozen historic, windblown Montana
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JANUARY 6, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM