The downtown gallery known for sharing Stanislaus State’s artistic side with the Turlock community has found a new home — and a new name.

Formerly known as Art Space on Main, the gallery took the past year off to regroup and search for a new home after losing its lease in Main Street’s Berg Building in September 2017. The trendy space opened there in September 2014, showcasing artwork created by Stanislaus State students and faculty, as well as professional artists.

Now, the gallery is open for viewing again at 226 N. First St., which is the former location of First Street Gallery & Frame Company in downtown Turlock.

“I think Main Street was great for us because it was so close to restaurants and people coming by, and now we’re off the beaten path a little bit but this place has the history of being First Street Gallery & Frame before, so there’s been art there for a long time,” Director Dean DeCocker said. “It’s nice that when they left, something else to do with art moved in.”

With the new location comes a new name for the gallery, which will now be known as the Stan State Art Space rather than Art Space on Main. There are plenty of differences between the two sites that make the current space more suitable for the gallery, DeCocker pointed out, like its concrete floors rather than the Berg Building’s wood, and its larger, open floor plan.

The space is also much closer to its fellow art gallery the Carnegie Arts Center, which will make organizing Turlock’s Art Around Town events much easier for the two organizations. The family-friendly evening art walk highlights downtown Turlock’s diverse art, business and culture scene and the Stan State Art Space will once again be included in the event.

“It’s really nice being downtown because people get to see what students are working on and what they’re interested in,” DeCocker said. “It shows that good, solid work is being made at the university.”

The larger space will now allow for dedicated studios in the back of the building where students can work on a variety of projects, and another smaller space in the building will be used as a rotating space for different shows, classes and lectures ranging from filmmaking to photoshop.

“We did have classes at our former space, but here we’ll be able to be more organized with it and offer even more classes this time around,” DeCocker said.

Since the gallery opened four years ago, over 10,000 guests have visited the space. At the new space on First Street, student art will take center stage more often than before. Currently, the new location’s first exhibition is running through Oct. 25 and features works by Department of Art graduates from 1960-2018. There are over 50 pieces of art on display, DeCocker said, which are mainly paintings but showcase other mediums as well.

The exhibition serves as an example of the caliber of artists Stanislaus State produces, he added.

“We wanted to showcase a wide variety of our alums and some really nice work,” he said. “We’re all really proud of them out there working and making it as artists.”

The Stan State Art Space is open from noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and noon to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.