POTTSTOWN PA – For entrepreneurs Anthony Nowack and Danielle Kangas, Pottstown looked like just the right place to open a new art gallery.
As borough residents, they already knew the community is home to many talented local artists. More importantly, it also includes a growing audience of art enthusiasts and potential buyers. And they found an affordably priced and easily accessible start-up space, in a downtown that continues to attract other new businesses.
Now, months after the official January 2025 opening of their Anno Artem gallery – on the second floor of the former train station at 1 Security Plaza – Nowack and Kangas say they are confident about their choice.
“There was so much opportunity here,” Nowack reports. “We had looked at other places to open,” he acknowledges, but at those the pair determined “we couldn’t take the kind of chances we felt like we needed to take … We want to do what we want to do, so we wanted to find a place that was kind of an open book.”
Pottstown was it, and particularly the train station accommodations, he says.
A Space That Pushes Boundaries
Kangas adds an explanation. They hope to inspire “people to come in, show their art, buy art, see art, own art, and feel comfortable in a space that pushes boundaries.”
To that end, the gallery’s opening shows have focused on themes likely to generate unique pieces and prompt lively discussion. In their latest exhibit, “What We Carry,” artists explored mental health. In their next, “The Visual Communicators,” entries examine Juneteenth, the federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.
Boundary-pushing doesn’t stop there.
- Anno Artem during July will introduce a solo exhibition, “Submerged,” described as “a multi-sensory solo exhibition by Kat Collins that explores the emotional, ecological, and symbolic depths of water;”
- The gallery is open Sunday mornings from 7-10 a.m., for what Kangas and Nowack label as “Art Before Breakfast.” They invite visitors to “come sit with the art and create, or just enjoy the company of other artists;
- That’s followed by the “Tuesday Night Social Club,” from 7-10 p.m., which offers games, art conversations, and occasional interviews with local artists; and
- On Thursdays from 7-10 p.m. the public is invited to “Art After Dark.” Visitors are encouraged to “bring your work in progress, start something new, or just hang out and chat with fellow artists.”
Nowack and Kangas are artists themselves. Through Anno Artem they also offer business services that other artists consider valuable: gallery and studio rental space, photography reproductions, digitization and restoration, print services, and gallery art sales.
Many artists dream of being self-sustaining, Kangas says. Their ability to sell pieces from a gallery show “really does speak volumes about how people value the work that they’re doing.”
The gallery is regularly open Fridays and Saturdays from 2-9 p.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and for its weekly events on Sunday mornings, and Tuesday and Thursday nights, as noted above.
Top photo and video by Travels With The Post
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