Onna Solomon and Thea Eck set up for Summer Camp in January, which featured (below) a sign to direct campers to various activities and performances of songs, poems, jokes, stories, and, yes, roller-skating prowess. | Courtesy of Cluster Museum
When I walk up to the hot pink facade of Cluster Museum on Main, I often get a little jolt of excited anticipation—I never know what artist I might meet, what new creative work I might experience, what spark of conversation might ignite me. Founded by Thea Eck, Kim DeBord, and Chien-An Yuan in October 2025, this contemporary art space is more than a gallery. It’s a vibrant third space—one of those essential gathering places outside of work or home where we find meaningful community. Each month there are new exhibits, author series, and workshops. Eck, who runs the day-to-day operations, says her hope is to provide a collaborative space for artists to flesh out their visions. She wants Cluster to be “a vessel for community artists who say, ‘I have this idea and I just don’t know what to do with it.’ And we can say, ‘Oh, we have a space for that.’”
Soon after Cluster opened, I did exactly that—I approached Eck about hosting an event called Summer Camp in January with only one specific piece fully realized: a group of people teaching and singing camp songs around an artificial fire. She responded with openness and curiosity, built on the vision and visuals of the theme, and created a temporary immersive environment, complete with well-stocked craft tables, signage, and a sculptural campfire for everyone to gather around. The event was conceptual, experiential, inclusive, joyful, and very silly—fully representative of the spirit of Cluster. As Eck puts it, “There’s not a pretentiousness you might expect in a contemporary art space. There’s a playfulness.”
Other collaborations have been just as joyful, if not quite as silly. For National Poetry month in April, Cluster partnered with two other local galleries, WSG and Gutman, to host an Ekphrastic Poetry Walk. As one of fourteen participating poets, I was assigned a gallery and told to write a poem in response to a piece of art of my choosing. The event culminated in a traveling poetry reading, in which the poets read their work standing in front of their chosen art pieces. Cluster also produced a beautiful companion booklet of art and poems, allowing a self-guided experience.
What strikes me about both of these events is how the collective process of creation was integral to the artistic vision. The practice of making something together was just as, if not more, important than the final outcome. I continue to be delighted by this burgeoning space that intentionally curates both art and relationships. As DeBord, cofounder and board president states, “I love the good vibes of the events. I feel like we set out to connect community and contemporary art and it’s happening!”