Issue link: http://maconmagazine.uberflip.com/i/1527947
92 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2024 INTERVIEW BY JULIA MORRISON | PHOTO BY DSTO MOORE Macon Chose Me is a photo series by DSTO Moore highlighting residents who weren't born in Macon but actively chose to move here and enjoy positively representing the community. B ryan and Yen-Ting Beck first met as MFA students studying at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. She was a ceramicist from Taiwan; he was a glass artist from Florida. Together, they set their sights on Macon and turned an industrial space off of Riverside Drive into stArtUp Studios, a multipurpose hub for creativity that welcomes folks for classes, buying art and décor, studio space, and special events, with a particular focus on three- dimensional artforms. Every inch of the studio bears a special touch, showing a constantly evolving space – from the beer koozies with Bryan and Yen-Ting's faces in silhouette to the colorful hand-painted entryway. This fall, they host their annual pumpkin patch filled with glass and ceramic representations of the Halloween symbol. Find out more – and make a gourd of your own as a festive date night or gathering of friends – at startupstudios.art. What made Macon choose you? Bryan: Location. Close to my family further south, but not too close. I really liked the town and how it's growing. Pretty much everything was possible in my mind. We knew we were going to start a business, and it just seemed doable for us here. Yen-Ting: It's really similar to where I grew up. There's a small-town feeling, but this little place has a lot of activity. Bryan: What made it choose me was probably the found family that we got almost as soon as we got here. We knew only a handful of people. People's lives changed, friends had kids, and we were building a business. Just through being part of the community, we ended up finding new groups of friends that became really, really close with us. Right now, my favorite place to go is Longleaf Distillery. The people working there and the front-of-house staff are just really nice. They like to have conversations as they make drinks. They're part of our newfound family as well. We hang out with them outside of work. Yen-Ting: It's just really a vibe there. Everybody kind of represents what Macon feels like. Why should someone visit stArtUp Studios? Bryan: We're the only place in Macon that has weekly glassblowing classes and events. We're also the only place in Macon with ceramics, glass, an art gallery, and a bar. It's kind of hard to pick one thing because stArtUp Studios has always been an ever-growing and changing space for us. It started out as a dilapidated warehouse space that we gutted out. There were no walls; there was no lighting in here. We painted some lines on the floor to separate the different spaces. But that's probably my favorite thing about it – that it's always becoming a little more of what we want it to be. Yen-Ting: I like all the clientele and variety. If you want to learn glassblowing, ceramics, and also see local artists of all kinds, awesome – it's all in one! It's a community where everybody feels comfortable to be here. Bryan & Yen-Ting Be ck M A C O N C H O S E M E