This Veteran's Day, local nonprofit and volunteer-run organization [Has Heart] is honoring vets and celebrating the grand opening of its new retail, gallery space, and event venue located at 115 S. Division Ave with a
Nov. 11 grand opening event.
Founded in 2011 by U.S. Navy Vet and entrepreneur Michael Hyacinthe alongside artist and designer Tyler Way, [Has Heart] connects the two unlikely realms of art and military to highlight the most poignant parts of both. The 1,000-square-foot gallery/retail hybrid will showcase artwork for sale from the
HERO[series], where [Has Heart] pairs veterans with artists who then work side by side to tell the vet’s story through art, design, and fashion.
“We really wanted it to be a hybrid of something that’s clean and modern and minimalist, but at the same time, bring in that classic, sort of timeless military aesthetic,” says Way, describing the white painted brick walls lined with black trim.
He says the aesthetic contrast serves to create both a blank slate for showcasing artwork and acts as a sort of metaphor for [Has Heart]’s mission — creating profound harmonies between concepts and ideas traditionally thought of as dissonant.
“It’s similar to how we bring the military and creative world together, which are typically opposites; but they work really well together,” he says.
[Has Heart] opened originally before this year’s ArtPrize event as a venue for the HERO[series] before deciding to stay and make 115 S. Division its permanent home.
“It made sense for us to be in here for ArtPrize and then remain open after ArtPrize,” he says. “People can continue to come in, experience design, see the stories long after ArtPrize is gone.”
The Nov. 11 grand opening event will kick off with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 6 p.m. with veterans and artists from the 2015 HERO[series] in attendance and appetizers catered by South Division neighbors at Bandit Queen.
“South Division is definitely an up-and-coming street with a lot of good independent stores and boutiques, a lot of good, young, creative people that bring a lot of passion to their craft,” Way says. “We kind of thought that blend of what Avenue for the Arts is would be a perfect fit for us because we’re also walking that line of being an arts collective organization, although product sales is how we sustain the organization — we’re playing both sides of art and retail.”
For more information,
visit [Has Heart] on Facebook or at www.supportfhh.com.
By Anya Zentmeyer, Development News Editor
Images courtesy of [Has Heart] on Facebook
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