The Toledo City Paper depends on readers like you! Become a friend today. See membership options
Art gallery and class space welcomes all in Downtown Toledo
In a nondescript building on Huron Street across from Fifth Third Field, you’ll find a sign with the number 39 on it. It’s a simple address marker for an art gallery many have unknowingly walked by. But, if you get the chance to visit Stu’s House at 39 Huron St., you’ll discover a collective of artists making fantastic works with all kinds of techniques and items, and you might just be lucky enough to make your own things alongside them.
On their website, Stu’s House lists themselves as an “artist collective that transforms unutilized historic space into a studio and community-driven gallery.” That underutilized historic space was the building on Huron Street used as storage for The Blarney Irish Pub. Tayler Meinen, who created Stu’s House, began renting the space two years ago while working at The Blarney.
Late one shift Meinen and her manager Travis Beczynski began discussing a storage space up for rent next door. Meinen, who thanks Beczynski for helping start the studio, took it over and began paying rent on the “stu”, her affectionate name for the “studio” space that eventually became Stu’s House.
Art in A New Space
The first gallery show was hosted in March of 2025, and the collective have been working on other shows and projects in the space since. Stu’s House has hosted solo and multi-arist exhibitions, thrift sales, and fundraisers. Its location on Huron Street also means the gallery can collaborate with other Downtown art collectives like neighbors Huron Street Studios and Graphite Design + Build, and they’ve hosted an event with vintage fashion shop House of Dow.
Community-driven is in both the description and in the spirit of Stu’s House. On top of a sign-painting class and fashion upcycling party, the space holds weekly events in an effort to bring in people who otherwise wouldn’t have a place to work on art. Every Wednesday is Color and Collage Night, where the studio opens for a few hours to facilitate both of those mediums for anyone who wants to try them out.
Anyone Can Be Creative
However, Cyd Gottlieb, the newest member of the gallery, explained that anyone can come in and work on any art, collaborating with the people around them and the in-gallery artists working on their own pieces. Gottlieb further revealed that “even if you don’t have anything to work on and just need a place to sit for two hours, you can stop by; we want to get people in the door.”
That sense of welcoming and the “anything can be art” mentality is the heart of Stu’s House. The artists involved collectively believe in sustainability, reusing and repurposing items into new concepts and ideas, and “making what is in front of you”. In that same vein, the artists are happy to work with anyone on almost any project; Meinen said that, if anyone wanted to utilize the gallery for their creative endeavors, “I can run it by the team to see if it fits in our space”. So if you have a creative idea with nowhere to make it happen, stop by Stu’s House and see what people are working on. It might just inspire you.
Stu’s House is located at 39 Huron St., Downtown Toledo
Weekly Coloring and Collage Night is Wednesdays from 6:30 – 8:30
Event schedule is on website stushouse.xyz
