Culture, Community & Creativity: InterUrban Arthouse, a non-profit and East family owned art studio, received a Lowe’s grant providing more space for community outreach

East mom Nicole Emanuel stood in front of her newly purchased, rundown USPS building in 2017 and saw it:

The old loading dock where the trucks used to back in would make a perfect stage, and the parking lot could be turned into seating for an audience. Those high ceilings — 23 feet, to be exact — would be perfect for rearranging the space for any event they want to host. Those 10,000 square feet could house 19 different studio spaces with room to spare for a café. But, of course, the fence with the “no trespassing” signs had to come down.

Although all she wanted was an art studio when she started InterUrban ArtHouse back in 2011, now she was the owner of an entire sorting facility after housing the organization in three previous locations.

InterUrban Arthouse is a USPS-sorting-facility-turned-art-studio-space situated between downtown Overland Park and the business district. A thriving community of artists dedicated to bettering their surroundings and culture through the arts via their three pillars — accessibility, affordability and inclusion — has grown around it since its conception in 2011 and has provided opportunities for East student involvement.

InterUrban ArtHouse CEO Angi Hejduk frequently submits applications for grants. When Lowe’s accepted their application of the Hometown grant, a $100,000 donation given to 100 different cities across the US to fund service projects, InterUrban jumped on the opportunity.

“Sometimes, when you’re an arts organization and you only search for arts-based projects, it’s limiting,” Hejduk said. “Whereas, [in] an arts organization, you really need to consider yourself as a community organization and what we were trying to do was community improvements.”

From the grant, InterUrban received supplies to renovate their outdoor space — a newly paved parking lot for all the festivals, new plants, water storage systems and the pièce de résistance: a community mural made through the collective efforts of 50 Lowe’s employees and East students. A guest appearance was made by Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — the spokesperson of Kansas City’s Lowe’s Hometown project — during the volunteer day on Oct. 18.

The mural, designed by Emanuel, features designs representing the cultural diversity of the community in addition to sections dedicated to the music production studio titled The Lab painted by Chico Sierra and Native American-inspired patterns made by Orlando Begay. 

“We really wanted to be a gateway between the historic neighborhood and the historic business district, and be a good neighbor,” Hejduk said. “I don’t know that development often takes that into consideration and we literally have these adorable neighborhood cottages right across the street.”

The five programs provided at InterUrban range from assisting aspiring artists in their freelancing and commission efforts to providing arts education and access to materials to low-income, at-risk or even just curious children in SMSD through workshops run by the studio’s tenants and artists.

One of the programs offered by InterUrban called ArtSmart helps in this endeavor by introducing and teaching children about social justice through art.

Emanuel first conceptualized the program years ago at a Briarwood Elementary PTA meeting, receiving a Green Schools federal grant — federal funding given to schools to inform students about environmental problems — in order to teach children about environmentalism and activism through the arts.

“As it’s evolved, her focus has gone from creating art to creating a community and a place where people can come together and work on art without having to worry about access to materials or anything like that,” Nicole’s son and senior Owen McGlynn said.

East art teacher Adam Finkelston started taking students on field trips to visit the studio ten years ago to open the door to them and encourage them to volunteer in a field that they are interested in. When volunteers were needed to contribute to the community mural, several East advance art students jumped at the chance.

“I was already looking for some art-related volunteer activities and when [Finkelston] gave [this opportunity, it] was kind of just like, ‘Oh, let’s do this,’” junior Nora Herring said.

Almost all of the projects and exhibitions worked on by the ArtHouse call to attention societal issues that penetrate American culture — everything from environmental activism to racial justice to abortion rights. 

It’s projects like these that have kept Emanuel coming back for ten years. She is retiring from the ArtHouse’s staff at the end of this year to go back to her art roots. Being founder and art director of InterUrban since its conception, it’s only right for her to go back to her original goal — making art in her own studio.