Katarina Hybenova

@kamelka

If you’re looking for a place to make and/or show your art, and are not a of fan stark white gallery spaces, we have some great news for you. Newly founded Unruly Collective, operating out of a pretty brownstone off of Wilson L is all about you!

We hung out with Hillary Mégroz, who together with Charlie Pastore, bought the building at 200 Cooper St., and made her dreams come true by turning it into a lovely art studio, gallery, and art residency space.

Hillary has a background of 12 years in entertainment and marketing. She is also a self-taught artists who has been making crepe paper flowers out of her tiny East Village apartment for years, which, as she said, was a lot of mess. “I wanted to have a place where I can create, and also other artists can come and create, and show their work,” she told Bushwick Daily. “It’s hard to get into a gallery if you’re not an established artists, and galleries in general just felt very impersonal to me, especially in the Lower East Side.”

Furthermore, she was looking for an opportunity to invest in real estate and Bushwick was kind of an obvious choice. After months of renovation, mostly done by Mégroz and Pastore themselves, Unruly Collective saw the light.

Today they offer studio spaces for rent–whether it’s individual studios or shares ones at affordable monthly membership rate (prices start at $200 a month). In addition they are working on a soundproof recording and listening room for musicians, and of course have a gorgeous community space-cum-gallery where members can organize shows, and which is available for a short-term rentals as well. Hillary estimates that they can fit upwards of 25 to 30 monthly members. (At the time of our visit they had five members.)

We were excited to see a shared meditation room in the building with colorful mural paintings where members can sit in a quiet contemplation and recharge their creativity.

Unruly has also living quarters available for artists in residence for two or three weeks (application is on their website).

There’s not a lot they would say no to as far as art goes, Mégroz told us. And sometimes that’s all you need to unapologetically create.