Give Rise Studio moves into new space on South Carroll Street

Jun. 2—What started as Sue Leveille's passion project has grown into a community of artists and wellness practitioners in Frederick. Over the course of about seven years, Leveille's Give Rise Studio has expanded to include more instructors, workshops and students, as well as Creative Community Members, who offer everything from art workshops to acupuncture and yoga sessions.

This week, Give Rise Studio will move to its new location at 125 S. Carroll St. in downtown Frederick. A ribbon cutting and grand opening celebration is planned for noon to 4 p.m. June 4 during First Saturday, with a makers market onsite, collaborative art pieces created onsite and, of course, cake.

"Give Rise Studio all about supporting and inspiring creativity, health and joy, and all of those can be interconnected," said Leveille, who also works as a manager at The Common Market.

Perhaps her years of work at Frederick's co-op grocery story has influenced her appreciation for the co-op model and how powerful community cooperation be. She says Give Rise Studio acts much like a co-op, supported by its Creative Community Members along with the students, customers and clients it serves.

The first brick-and-mortar space for Give Rise Studio was a mere 14- by 14-foot room on East Patrick Street, located above The Knot House. Leveille taught jewelry-making classes there, as well as yoga. She would fold up the art table and replace it with floor mats, depending on which session she was leading.

In 2019, Leveille moved Give Rise Studio to a 1,700-square-foot location above Starbucks on North Market Street, which opened up new possibilities, as it had literal space to accommodate more people and more activities. She brought on Creative Community Members, who utilized the space for various workshops. She also rented out the space for parties — as long as renters followed the Give Rise Studio mission of hosting events that inspired "creativity, health and/or joy," Leveille pointed out — and she also began hosting seasonal makers markets to showcase the work of artists in the area.

"I wanted to give artists and wellness practitioners the opportunity to have really affordable rental rates and offer them support," Leveille said.

Leveille believes Give Rise Studio survived during the pandemic's rockiest times because her partnership with Creative Community Members was mutually beneficial. They got low rental rates and various support from Leveille, while Leveille received consistent membership funds to help Give Rise Studio to stay afloat.

Everything shifted to virtual classes for the first few months of the pandemic. Leveille offered free yoga sessions via Facebook and Instagram and also began making and delivering craft kits to people in the area — feeling like "the craft fairy," she said with a laugh.

Though the space on North Market Street was lovely — well lit, high ceilings, tons of space — Leveille is excited to move Give Rise Studio into its next chapter. The new space on South Carroll Street is better suited for her vision, she said. It's a first-floor space, so it's more accessible (the former location required climbing several stairs), and it also has more grit.

"It's the kind of space I can picture paint spilling and it would be OK," she said. "This space just reflects me more."

As an added bonus, Leveille can see from the front door of the new space her original location on East Patrick Street, giving her a sense of how far she's come.

But some things will remain the same — namely, the mission behind Give Rise Studio. For Leveille, Give Rise Studio is all about giving people those little moments when they can feel creative or joyful or healthy.

"At a mandala rock painting class ... some people were really into the mindfulness and the slowness of it all, and there were other people that made three rocks in two minutes," Leveille said with a laugh. "But everybody got so quiet. It's so busy in the world, and everything is about productivity and 'gotta do this, gotta do that.' These little moments in our days — you can bypass these moments and not realize how you connected to yourself in a different way and maybe felt calm. As people left the class, you could hear them going down the stairs, going, 'I feel so good. Wasn't that fun?' It's really about what they take with them. You don't realize that you're slowing down and, for some classes, you're tapping into your parasympathetic nervous system. Your breath slows, you can feel a sense of relaxation while you're concentrating on something ... you're finding stillness and joy."