The Gallery at Clay Space Ceramic Arts Center in Lisle.
Clay Space Ceramic Art Center is a nonprofit ceramics arts center run co-op style by its 55 members/resident artists and is home to a growing clay arts community. It houses a 6,700 square foot studio space, a gallery, private studio units, a dedicated small group classroom, a fully equipped glaze area and a dedicated area for glass work. They offer ceramics classes to the public and host workshops by nationally and internationally recognized visiting artists.
Like many small businesses across the country and throughout the world, COVID-19 forced them to close their gallery and suspend all classes earlier this spring. When they re-opened, Marie Gnesda, president of Clay Space, realized they were in need of some electrical assistance in changing out light bulbs and installing new fixtures as the studio center is located within an industrial space with very high ceilings. So, she reached out to PowerForward DuPage for help.
Executive Director Karyn Charvat immediately got in touch with the IBEW Local 701 RENEW committee to see if they could provide assistance to the Lisle nonprofit. President Tom Imburgia responded with an enthusiastic YES!
A few days later, he and fellow committee members, Nick Johansen and Drew Petry, took a ride to the art center to meet with Marie. There they found a number of fluorescent tubes burned out and three fixtures retrofitted to accept LED tubes. They also discovered that the one fixture was using an LED tube in a fixture that had not been retrofitted yet. And they noted that the end of this tube had melted and deformed, causing it to fall and rest on a nearby sprinkler pipe. Not good! The team recommended retrofitting all of the fixtures in the work area and recently completed the work.
Marie contacted PowerForward DuPage to thank the team for their time and efforts and had this to say, “The lights are done, look great and work great. The space is so much brighter! We had several dark pockets throughout the studio where we just could not work. Now we can use the space more efficiently and will be saving money on electric bills as well. We very much appreciate all the work the guys did, thank you!”
Indeed many thanks go out to the following RENEW Committee members for taking the time to give back through the use of their expertise and talent. Well done!
Martin Drew
Tom Imburgia
Todd Imburgia
Nick Johansen
Jonathan Johansen
Drew Petry
Leo Serna
