Looking south, the Mississippi gleams an apparent stone’s throw away, and to the east the bluffs near Mounds Boulevard stretch green against the sky. The views are nothing to sneeze at, either.

Artists being who they are, each studio has its own current flavor: funky carpets and hangings, decorations scrounged from the Ax-Man surplus store, brightly painted walls, hammocks and swings suspended from the open beams… almost anything goes. The floor plans show variety and flexibility, ranging from one-bedroom flats to two-bedroom units with room for a third in the loft.

Exposed brickwork and beams and wooden floors add character and history. The studios look large and airy thanks to the huge windows and high ceilings. It is not a maze, as so many older warehouses tend to be, but a straightforward series of floors centered on the atrium. We visited the atrium also, the halls are open, nicely lit, and clean (very important). Not only are the people friendly, but the space is as well. While much of this is true for many buildings on any given Art Crawl, few of them make as much of an impact as the Tilsner. Some of these apartment-studios have a full-fledged party going on, spilling music, laughter and occasional odd lighting into the hallway. Still others enjoy a drink with the artists, chatting about anything under the sun, but usually about art in one form or another. There are always a handful of people in each open studio, some taking a quick glance around at the walls, the artwork and the artists before moving on, some lingering over a painting on the wall or a piece of sculpture in the corner. This is especially true during the energy of the Art Crawl, where one is greeted at the doors by not only a throng of the public but by smiling artists handing out maps of the building and information on the cooperative. Standing in the couch-infested meeting area in the basement of the building, looking up and out the skylights seven floors up, it is easy to fall in love. Massive exposed wooden beams precisely gird the space, expanding the perceived size of the atrium. Historical imaginings aside, the reconstructed space of the building gives one pause, especially the atrium that runs through the building from the basement to the roof.

The building is a converted warehouse with a history dating back to the early 1900’s thinking of the lives that have passed by and through the building on its corner of Broadway and Kellogg is humbling. The Tilsner Artists’ Cooperative shines a lovely brick-red in the summer sunlight in spring and autumn it proves equally attractive to the crowds of people attending the Art Crawl. Amanda Vail writes the first in an occasional series of profiles of artists' spaces: The Tilsner Cooperative, an Artspace project in St.

Pony Play by Sean Michael