After doubling its space by moving to an old warehouse in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood, the owner of Tim Faulkner Gallery says the art gallery has flourished within the community.Last week, Tim Faulkner said the gallery has never been stronger and his clientele had no troubles following him to the new location.Faulkner said the location has 10 working studios for artists to lease, and those spaces and have been filled since the new location opened. A new coffee shop—McQuixote Books & Coffee—also opened about two months ago.“The naysayers that said ‘don't go to Portland, that’s a dumb move, no one will follow you,’ we proved that myth wrong right off the bat,” Faulkner said. “The Portland neighborhood itself has been extremely supportive of the gallery being in here.” Related: Inside Tim Faulkner's New Portland Arts ComplexFaulkner said when Portland had its recentart and heritage festivalthe gallery was one of the larger destinations for people to visit.“It was amazing how many long-time Portland residents specifically took the time to find me or Margaret, my partner, here in the building just to say thank-you for moving to the neighborhood and bringing this into the Portland neighborhood,” Faulkner said.He said in addition to the Portland Art and Heritage Festival, the gallery had a fundraising carnival for Neighborhood House to raise money to put in a new playground. The gallery also held a premiere of a film made by local filmmakers on Guatemalan break dancers who dance for money to stay out of gangs. And Faulkner said the gallery also has plans for some larger events.“Halloween is a Friday this year, so we’re doing a masquerade ball here at the gallery. We’ve got three terrific local bands performing that are going to be performing that night,” he said. Those include Billy Goat Strut Revue (which includes WFPL producer Laura Ellis), Small Time Napoleon and D’Arkestra. And Faulkner is also working on putting together a larger event for the gallery’s seventh anniversary in December.“We’re going to be doing a fashion show and a concert at the event space, but we’re tying that in with a coat drive,” Faulkner said. The coats will be donated to neighborhood children.
