Press

Art is All Around : Sarasota’s Unconvential New Gallery Spaces Are Showing Fresh Work by Local Artists

SRQ Magazine, Case in point: SPAACES, an acronym that stands for Sarasota Project Aligning Artists Communities Exhibits and Studios. It’s located on Princeton Street, off U.S. 301 and just east of downtown Sarasota. In 2017, Marianne Chapel Junker opened a personal studio in the space, but quickly realized she could share it with other working artists. The project was first known as M. Chapel Projects, but Chapel Junker changed the name to SPAACES in 2018 and worked with a nonprofit tech company to learn about nonprofits and how to set up her own foundation.

Women Who Roar: 2022 Leadership Circle Inductees

SRQ Magazine, 2022 Leadership Circle Inductees on one of their biggest achievements. Marianne Chapel, SPAACES Foundation. Getting the non-for-profit, the SPAACES Foundation off the ground and operating on a shoe-string budget, a world-wide pandemic was extremely challenging. It involved persistence, tenacity, and faith that, “if you build it, they will come.” I am extremely happy that SPAACES was able to start building, operating, and supporting Sarasota artists with exhibitions and art studios in 2020.

Making SPAACES: In an industrial playground bordered by Ivy League names, Marianne Chapel and a band of local artists build a community of collaboration.

PHIL LEDERER |October 2021

SRQ Magazine, What makes a community? What is the difference between audience engagement and community involvement? These are the questions constantly caroming through Marianne Chapel’s brainspace since she made the decision in 2019 to pivot from running a personal gallery/studio in M.Chapel Projects to shaping a community as the founder of SPAACES—Sarasota Project Aligning Artists Communities Exhibits Studios.

Art Snax: SPAACES in Sarasota Nourishes local artist, fosters creativity

Caitlin Albritton |Tuesday, February 9, 2021

While many galleries in the Sarasota scene are focused on retail with traditional forms of art, SPAACES Foundation is more like what Tempus Projects is to Seminole Heights — it aims to offer contemporary exhibitions that push the boundaries of what art can be while collaborating with artists from different mediums.

Of Salons, Napoleons and Art in Sarasota

SRQ Magazine OCT 31, 2018 – In 1667, the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris hosted its first official exhibition, establishing what would become known simply as The Salon. As the arrogance of the name suggests, organizers and overdressed attendees quickly established themselves as the premier art snobs of the European world, and, for near 200 years, entry into The Salon became a sign of royal favor and a necessary step to having any sort of artistic career in France.

This is exactly the attitude that Marianne Chapel, founder of SPAACES, a community-minded art center, wants to destroy with her latest exhibition…

Gallery makes affordable studio and exhibit SPAACES for local artists

The Observer OCT 31, 2018 – In November 2017 she opened M. Chapel Projects, a contemporary gallery that doubled as her studio off U.S. 301 North. But she quickly realized she’d prefer to lead a nonprofit over a traditional business.“I’d rather work in the trenches,” Chapel says. “It just fits my personality better to work with artists that need support and to provide something for the community that we currently don’t have.”