Why Downtown Phoenix's Chartreuse Gallery Won't Close After All

Nancy Hill won't shutter her downtown Phoenix gallery, Chartreuse, after all. Instead, Hill has announced plans to run both the art space and her letterpress business, Hazel & Violet, within one storefront starting in January 2017.

Currently, Hill's letterpress business is located in a southwest-facing portion of Bragg’s Pie Factory, a 1946 building that’s on both the Phoenix Historic Property Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Originally built as a pie factory, the building now houses several small businesses and art studios, including Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva.

Hill will relocate Hazel & Violet to a northeast-facing section of the building inside Bragg's Pie Factory. It's the same unit where she has operated Chartreuse gallery since September 2015. Essentially, she'll run both her business and her gallery out of the same space.

In October, Hill announced she would shutter the Grand Avenue gallery in mid-December due to the cost of operating the space. But consolidating the spaces will make it possible for her to keep the gallery open. The letterpress printing machines are being moved on January 7.

Hill chose to move Hazel & Violet into the Chartreuse gallery space for a couple of reasons. The gallery is located at the front of the building, which runs along Grand Avenue. It gets more foot traffic, and it has a full wall of windows facing the street, so there’s plenty of natural lighting, Hill says.

Letterpress printing equipment will go in a portion of the space that currently serves as a seating area, Hill says. Art will be exhibited along a long wall on the opposite side of the space and on temporary walls Hill has used for previous exhibitions. Hill hasn’t scheduled 2017 exhibitions at this point. Until recently, she expected the December 2016 exhibition to be her last.

Chartreuse opens “Resilient Bodies: Bill Dambrova” on First Friday, December 2, from 6 to 10 p.m. Hill will announce future exhibitions on the Chartreuse gallery website once they’re confirmed.