121 S. Gay Street will soon be the home to Downtown Central Painting with a Twist. A fun painting experience for artists or non-artists, Painting With a Twist classes typically run a couple of hours and participants are encouraged to bring their favorite alcoholic (or non, if you prefer) beverages to make the experience more pleasant. An artist leads the class as participants produce work they hadn’t imagined existed within the limits of their talents. The new business is being launched by Ashley Bell.
Ashley has the enthusiasm of a high school cheerleader. She’s excited and passionate and can hardly contain it all. She’s apparently been determined to chart a different course – her own course – for much of her life. Born in Michigan, but raised in Madisonville, at seventeen-years-old she presented her parents with completed paperwork to study in Ecuador for her senior year. She noted that she needed their signature. They signed and she moved to a country she’d never laid eyes on and stayed for a year.
I asked her what would make her do such a thing. She said she’d had trouble mounting the enthusiasm to study in Spanish class and had been removed from the course twice. It seem logical to her that she needed to live in a Spanish-speaking country for a year in order to motivate herself to learn the language. So she moved. By the time her family visited at Christmas she acted as translator. She followed that year with another abroad, this one in Ukraine. Why Ukraine? “Because I didn’t know anything about it.”
Attending Maryville College a year later, she chose International Studies as her major with the vague notion of joining the Peace Corps after graduation, but mostly because that was the major which would afford her the best possible chance to study abroad. And she did. One of the most traveled students to ever graduate from the school, she spent a summer in Chile and a semester each in mainland China and Hong Kong. She’s still fluent in Spanish, speaks some Russian and Mandarin, but says she’s lost most of her Cantonese.
During college she began work for the Hope Center in Athens as a Victims Advocate for battered women. Utilizing her language skills, she worked with Spanish speaking women for five years, acting as a translator in court among other things. She continues to work with them periodically.
It was in a class at the Lovell Road location of Painting with a Twist in April 2014 that she had an epiphany with the help of her mother. The class was a benefit for ALS and her mother noted the joy her daughter got from the class and as they left said to Ashley, “Why don’t you open one of these?” In true Ashley fashion, she got online that night and signed up for Discovery Day with the company in Mandeville, Louisiana, the home location of the company.
At this point in the conversation, Ashley pointed out that Ecuador is her favorite place she’s ever been because the people there are so intensely and consistently friendly. She found the same thing at the corporate headquarters for Painting With A Twist and it felt like home. By the end of the day, she knew for certain she wanted to open her own franchise.
Most compelling to her was their story: The business started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina with two purposes. The first was to offer an evening of fun to provide some distraction from the tragedy for the victims and also to raise funds to help them. The classes were such a success they were repeated, the business started, opened new locations and then began offering franchises.
She set about securing a loan to start the business and to determine a location. She hesitated to open a store in Knoxville given that one location already existed, but she decided the city was big enough for two. She looked around the area, but ultimately decided that the energy of downtown was what she wanted and, specifically, she wanted to be in the arts district. She found 121 Gay Street and felt it was perfect. She walked next door to Dewhirst Properties and announced her intentions. David Dewhirst met with her and a lease was signed. While the new location is smaller than many other Painting with a Twist locations, she feels it is the right scale for an urban setting.
She’s secured bids for the build-out and hopes to see work begin by the end of this month and would like to open in early summer. She and her family will do some of the work themselves. One of the features of the new space will be paintings generated by the artists at the corporate offices. Based on photographs of five local scenes, she’d be interested in your input as to which particular downtown scenes might be best. What do you think? Comment here or email her at studio184@paintingwithatwist.com.
She’s also looking for artists looking for well-paid, part-time work. She’d like to have a list of four to seven and is accepting applications at the email address above. Not only do the artists need to be talented, they need to enjoy people and have a capacity to create a fun experience for a wide range of groups. It might be a good fit for UT students as well as for working artists. It involves equal parts art and entertainment.
Customers may sign up for classes through the webpage for the Downtown Central location once it is developed. The company also has a mobile version and is developing an app to provide easy registration. Individuals, couples or groups of friends may sign up. Couples are common as are bachelorette parties. Ashley noted that a number of proposals have been known to happen during classes, so who knows? Maybe you’ll get lucky if you’re hoping for a proposal. Corporations use it for team-building and families come together for a night of fun. There are also children’s classes which are typically shorter and run around $25. The average class is two hours and runs $35.
One of the features of every franchise is a monthly fundraiser called Painting with a Purpose, similar to the one Ashley attended the night she decided to investigate a possible franchise. Each month a different 501c3 is selected as a recipient of the night’s profits. She’s hoping she might start with Hope Center, but she’d likely be open to other suggestions for subsequent events. It’s part of the spirit of generosity that attracted her to the company from the beginning.
You should definitely “like” her Facebook page to support her, but there is also a selfish reason: she’ll be giving away prizes via the FB page between now and opening day, which will include free classes.
Her tentative hours will be Noon to 9:00 PM weekdays, with later hours a possibility for the weekends. Classes will be mostly nights and weekends and she’s thinking she’ll likely be closed on Mondays. Watch for the Grand Opening and remember to email her if you are an interested artist and to “like” the FB page for a chance to win free classes.
Related Note: All photographs used with permission.
Unrelated note: About fifty people have entered the contest to win tickets to rhythm and blooms. Remember, tonight at 6:00 PM sharp is the deadline. Here are the details one final time:
This is Rhythm n Blooms week and Inside of Knoxville and the Rhythm n Blooms Festival have two weekend passes to give to a reader. Please do not participate in this giveaway unless you would plan to attend the entire three-day weekend. To enter you must send me a private email at knoxvilleurbanguy@gmail.com. You must include “Ticket Giveaway” in the subject line and your name and contact information in the body of the email. The cutoff is 6:00 PM Wednesday night. Any emails after this time will not be considered. I will randomly select the winner and notify that individual or couple in order to arrange for transference of tickets. Happy R & B week!
Second Unrelated Note: Please don’t forget the Bicycle Facilties Plan will be announced tonight at the East TN. History Center at 6:00 PM.