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Just around the northeast corner of Easton’s Northampton and Bank streets, colorful blown-glass orbs hang in a welcoming window that until very recently was a brick warehouse wall.
Inside, carefully arranged under an impressive 16-foot-high ceiling, displays of pottery, jewelry, hand-painted scarves and ties, carved wood, paintings, paper, soaps, bug-shaped bookmarks, and other small miracles greet visitors.
For owner Diane Bower, the “fine art and fine craft gallery,” aptly named Just Around the Corner, is itself a miracle.
Back in May, Bower opened her doors in a building on South Second Street, only to close them five days later, after a fire in an adjacent building.
“I tried desperately to find another space,” she says, explaining that other downtown merchants rushed to her aid and helped her find space. “If it wasn’t for their support, I would not have been able to go on.”
Bower, a resident of the area for the past 25 years and former trade-show consultant and trade-show coordinator for Binney and Smith Inc., eventually found the 1,100-square-foot space at 5A North Bank St., next to the Easton Clayworks. She began moving in on Wednesday, Nov. 28, and opened three days later, on Saturday, Dec. 2.
“It’s a beautiful place to come and work,” she says, pointing to exposed brick walls and the pressed tin ceiling that tops the space’s southern half. Bower, who serves as the design chair for Easton’s Main Street Initiative, adds that her experience has been made even more satisfying by the sense of camaraderie among her fellow Easton shop owners.
“I was able to open so quickly because my friends would come, stick their heads in the door and say, ‘I have an hour, what can I do?’” she says.
Not much more than a month after opening day, Bower can show off the work of more than 100 juried artists and artisans—40 of them local.
“There’s this cohesive group of people who genuinely care about each other in Easton,” she says, pointing out that this sense of “co-opertition” has supported a flurry of new businesses and a flourishing arts community.
“I’m very excited about what’s happening downtown,” she says, “And I’m very excited about what can happen downtown.”
Just Around the Corner is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. For more information, call Bower at 610-258-9850 or e-mail jatcgallery@aol.com.