Michael Gilsinan
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SUPtown Music & Arts

A street-level storefront in uptown Manhattan, rebuilt as one home for music lessons, live performance, and visual art.

Role
Co-founder
Opened
December 2019
Location
Uptown Manhattan, New York
Program
Music classrooms, performance space, art gallery
The SUPtown Music & Arts front room: a white gallery wall with the SUPtown logo, framed Art and Music posters, track lighting, and bold yellow diagonal color blocks above a lounge seating area. (open larger image)
The front room: gallery, lounge, and concert venue.

Overview

SUPtown Music & Arts was conceived as a multidisciplinary destination: music classrooms, a live performance space, and an art gallery inside one fully renovated commercial space. It became the second home of Fort Lee School of Music, in uptown Manhattan.

The plan put learning, performing, and exhibiting under one roof. The front room hosts concerts and art classes, corridors double as exhibition walls, and a bold graphic system runs through the corridors and studios.

My role

  • Co-founded the venue and led its development from concept to launch
  • Helped shape the physical environment through a full renovation, working alongside the architects and build-out team
  • Shaped programming, staffing, and the overall customer experience
  • Launched with a live concert in December 2019, followed by the inaugural semester in January 2020

Highlights

Launch concert in the new space
Dec 2019
Inaugural semester
Jan 2020
Classrooms, stage, and gallery in one venue
3 in 1

Wayfinding

Color and type that carry you through the space

Diagonal planes of yellow and charcoal cut across walls and ceilings, and oversized numerals mark every studio door. The graphics turn a long, narrow storefront into a sequence of bright, legible rooms.

Two studio doors marked with oversized black numerals 7 and 8, small yellow square windows, and a charcoal diagonal painted across the wall. (open larger image)
Studios 7 and 8.
A white corridor with a large yellow triangle painted across the floor-to-ceiling wall; two people stand along the hallway. (open larger image)
A long white hallway with a vertical yellow stripe on the left wall leading toward the studios. (open larger image)
Two bright yellow practice-room doorways set into a charcoal wall, with framed artwork and black metal chairs. (open larger image)

Performance

A room that changes roles

The front room works as a gallery most days and a concert hall on performance nights. A raised, stepped platform with a built-in modern fireplace gives recitals an intimate setting and doubles as seating.

A woman sits on a raised, two-step platform with a long built-in modern fireplace behind it, beneath a row of track lights. (open larger image)
Stepped stage with built-in fireplace.
A grand piano in the foreground of the gallery room as an audience of families watches a student performance. (open larger image)
The gallery set for a recital.

Opening night · December 2019

Launching with live music

SUPtown opened to the public with a concert in December 2019, with Fort Lee School of Music students performing in the new space. The inaugural semester began the following month.

A violinist and a young student in a red sweater perform side by side in front of a full room, with the SUPtown logo on the wall behind the audience. (open larger image)
A violin duet at the opening concert.
A full audience of families and students seated in rows in the SUPtown gallery, framed posters and the SUPtown logo on the wall behind them. (open larger image)
A full house for the launch concert.

Beyond music

Art in the same rooms

Visual art was part of the program alongside music. Figure-drawing classes used the stage steps, students painted at long communal tables, and the hallways doubled as walls for artwork.

Students sit with sketchbooks drawing a model posed on the stepped stage during a figure drawing class. (open larger image)
Drawing from life on the stage steps.
Children paint at a long table covered in paper, with framed student art on the wall and the street visible through the storefront windows. (open larger image)
Art program, March 2020.
Two musicians, one holding a guitar, sit in a gray hallway lined with framed artwork beside numbered studio doors. (open larger image)
Corridors double as exhibition space.
See the space Events archive

Contact

Let’s talk about music, experience, and technology.

Always glad to talk about creative work, live music, and products worth building.

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