What began with a signature on a lease and a dream has grown into a ten-year journey through art, community, friendship, risk, resilience, and an unwavering belief in the power of creative work. These images trace the remarkable arc of Curtis Speer and CUSP Gallery—from the exhilaration of signing the lease on that first space, to selling out eight exhibitions in the gallery’s very first year, and ultimately welcoming artists and ideas from around the world through its doors. Along the way came extraordinary collaborations and relationships, from working with institutions such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Newport Restoration Foundation, to opening the gallery’s walls to fellow artists so they could find an audience, build momentum, and thrive.

 

CUSP became more than a gallery; it became a gathering place, a platform, and a catalyst for a creative community. That same spirit eventually led to the founding of the Newport Artists Collective—a continuation of the belief that artists are stronger when they lift one another up.

 

And now, after ten extraordinary years, I find myself standing at the other end of that first photograph—the one where everything was still ahead of me. There is something profoundly emotional about looking back at the person who signed that first lease and realizing he could not possibly have known what would happen inside the walls he was about to call CUSP. He could not have known the artists who would become friends, the strangers who would become collectors, the exhibitions that would fill rooms, the conversations that would last long after the lights were turned off, or the lives that would intersect because this little place existed.

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Closing the gallery is bittersweet because CUSP was never simply a business to me. It held ten years of my life. It held my ambition, my failures, my victories, my friendships, my exhaustion, my laughter, my stubbornness, my growth, and an enormous piece of my heart. There are fingerprints on these walls that cannot be seen and stories embedded in them that no photograph will ever fully capture.