Gold Leaf artist community thriving in DC

Gold Leaf Studios is a warehouse space located in the heart of Chinatown that is home to creatives of all shapes and sizes. Painters, international artists, bands, clothing designers, and renaissance people alike share a common space - all for continuation and cultivation of the artistic process.

Mike Abrams, an artist and community-thinker, has been the landlord at Gold Leaf Studios for the past 11 years. His ability to find raw space for cheap rent is one of the key components in progression of the DC arts scene. As we have learned from the Warhol days, it is this kind of alternative thought and artistic allowance that allows culture and economy to thrive.

"Basically, artists have to keep moving further and further afield," says Philippa Hughes, an arts organizer and board member of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. "But artists need to be in the mix, be involved in what's happening. ... Creative people need to be around each other, to run into each other and bounce ideas off each other. With everyone moving out to the suburbs, it's harder and harder to have those conversations that inspire more creativity."

Gold Leaf Studios provides this community involvement and creative dialogue. As Kristina Bilonick, one of the many artists residing at Gold Leaf, states, "I feed off of seeing other artists. There's something about this particular building that makes me never want to leave."

In the coming years, those residing in Gold Leaf hope to turn it into a more accessible and engaging meeting-place, allowing the whole DC community to be introduced to the studio work and excitement occurring there.

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