Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Jaeger-Begent.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
2Create Gallery Story: I have always loved art, and our whole family is very artistic. My husband, David Begent, and myself considered ourselves artists, but we also, as I tell people, like to eat, so becoming professional “starving artists” was never an appealing option to either of us. So we tapped into our entrepreneurial side and ran a successful commercial construction company in San Diego for over 30 years and decided to become professional artists after we retired. This concept seems to fit many people with artistic talent, which is why so many people “take” up art for real after they retire.
Before we sold our construction company, we had begun to look for a property with a house and barn that my husband could convert into an art studio. We soon learned there aren’t that many properties in San Diego County with barns, but after several years we came upon the perfect property – the 52 acres “old Owen” ranch in Ramona. This is a wonderful ranch looking over the Santa Maria Grassland Preserve – and it had 2 barns!
To our delight, we learned there were many artists living in Ramona probably because it is beautiful out here and cheap (comparatively speaking of course!). We eventually joined the annual Ramona Open Studio Tour where we met and became involved in the very robust Ramona Artist Community. I had always thought owning an art gallery would be fun and “retirement” for an entrepreneurial artist living in an area packed full of talented artists predictably led me, with the support of my family, to do just that.
With my background as an artist member and Treasurer of a non-profit gallery in Del Mar (The Del Mar Art Center in the Del Mar Plaza) along with the sudden availability of a great affordable metal building on Main Street in Ramona as well as my strong connection to the Ramona Art community led to a “perfect storm” so to speak, and 2Create Gallery, a non-profit art organization and art Gallery, suddenly became a reality rather than just an interesting idea.
Has it been a smooth road?
Art Gallery Challenges and Struggles: Anyone who has remodeled anything knows that “struggles” are an integral part of the construction process, but we are lucky to have a lot of experience in this particular endeavor which was definitely helpful in coming up with a functional and open gallery design.
A big concern was how many days should the gallery be open. We knew that most customers would be driving through Ramona on the weekends (44 thousand a year drive up to Julian) and being open during the week would not be very productive. So for the first two years we were only open on weekends, but with increased demand, we added Fridays this year.
The question then became how to utilize this wonderful space during the week, which is how The Art Center of Ramona became our “partner in crime” as we jokingly call our collaboration. The Art Center is a non-profit art organization that provides excellent week-day art classes taught by professional art teachers.
Because The Art Center needed large open space for their art classes, the new big question became “how to get two different organizations in one building only big enough for one business.” After a good deal of brainstorming the idea of movable rolling art, walls spread out when the art gallery is open and then pushed together to provide plenty of open space for art classes, was implemented with great success! Everyone is now happy, and our two organizations work together to elevate art and creativity in our community and San Diego County.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
2Create Gallery is a non-profit art organization that tries to captivate people with excellent art and creative ideas. We have more than 32 artists in all genres. As a matter of fact, that is one of the things that intrigues our customers the most – our gallery is unusual in that there is an abundance of all kinds of really good art making it almost more of a “museum” than your normal art gallery filled with one type of art.
Our artist members run the gallery, and they try to provide a creative and inspiring experience for our gallery visitors. Customers wander around the gallery and have a very fun experience. 2Create Gallery has now been open for about 2.5 years and has been well received by the community as well as people driving through Ramona to visit Julian or going out to the desert; to the point that this year the art gallery expanded its day open to including Fridays.
We encourage creative community activities and provide as many activities as we can to allow our artists to interact with the public in a positive way. Our monthly First Friday Open House Events have become quite successful with great “Themes” that everyone who comes enjoys. Our last one in June showcased Ramona School District & The Ramona Art Center children’s art, and the gallery walls were covered with some amazing youngster’s art, which parents and their kids proudly shared with our community!
On a personal level I really enjoy supporting others, getting involved in creative endeavors and organizing things, so owning a nonprofit art gallery is a lot of fun for me and a great way to give back by supporting the creative arts in our area. It is very satisfying for me to see people come into the gallery and watch their faces light up in surprise at seeing such a great open art gallery space in the East County (for heavens sake!) — and then watch their faces light up again when they begin to focus on our amazing art — I truly love witnessing “wow” moments!
Contact Info:
- Address: 438 Main Street, Ramona, CA 92065
- Website: www.2creategallery.com (www.theartcenterramona.com )
- Phone: Molly, 619-985-9584
- Email: 2creategallery@gmail.com
- Facebook: 2Create Gallery
Image Credit:
Ramona Chamber of Commerce and Molly Jaeger-Begent
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