Arts Warehouse — Attraction in Delray Beach

I had a terrible experience, that I wouldn't wish on anyone, with one of the resident artists at the Arts Warehouse.

I stopped at Warehouse on a Saturday to look for something special for a wedding gift for my niece, and I ended up selecting a ceramic piece from the resident studio of Kathleen "Kass" O'Brien. Ms. O'Brien's preferred method of payment is through Zelle transactions, so I went through the process of setting up a Zelle recipient profile for her. Ms. O'Brien verbally gave me her information, which I entered into Zelle and then repeated back to her to avoid mistakes (closed loop communication). I then did 2 Zelle transactions to cover the purchase and shipping and left the gift & card with the artist to ship to my niece.

You can probably guess where this story is going. Despite my due diligence, the Zelle designated telephone number was off by one digit and thus the transaction funds went to an erroneous recipient. Long story short, I spent the next month filing two separate claims with my bank and trying to contact the erroneous recipient in a bid to get these funds returned. All to no avail.

During this time, I kept Ms. O'Brien in the loop, and even called her when I was filing the 2nd bank claim. She assured me that the gift was still boxed up and ready to be shipped at my request. Two weeks later when the claim was denied, I texted her with the update and that I would send her MORE funds to at least cover her expenses and the gift could get shipped. One can imagine my disbelief when she replied that she had already SOLD the piece! When I pressed her on why she would do something so wildly inappropriate, she offered some bizarre excuse that she thought I was no longer interested in the piece...even though I had paid for it! After I countered her wonky logic and reiterated our last conversation...I received no response, no offer to remedy the situation, and I never heard from the artist again.

I then tried contacting the Arts Warehouse manager, Grace Gdaniec, to possibly intervene in the situation, but was informed that the Warehouse has no control over the artists' transactions (however shady), despite being done on the premises.

An even crazier wrinkle to this story? I'm actually a repeat customer of Ms. O'Brien and had bought a piece from her the year prior. This is the "reward" for repeat business!

So, the moral here? Unless you thoroughly enjoy flushing your money and time down the toilet with absolutely nothing to show for it...suppress your urge to support the local arts and avoid the Arts Warehouse and, especially, the shifty Kass O'Brien...

It's always an interesting experience when I visit Arts Warehouse. My favorite place to visit is Visual Adjectives, which is on the 2nd floor and has amazing artwork. It's a family operation because the two main artists are father and son. At Visual Adjectives not only can you find handdrawn artwork, but you can also find insence, books from their publishing company, organic soap for those with sensitive skin but who love scented soap, aromatherapy, etc. There's so much to choose from. It's really the art that draws you in though. It's just so cool what these artists can do with pencil and pens. Then when they're done, their black and white artwork is brought to life by the coloring. I simply can't decide which art piece is my favorite. I would suggest checking out this place so others can understand how hard it...

I am a Resident Artist at Arts Warehouse (upstairs in Studio 13) and I love working and creating at AW among so many other talented and friendly artists. AW is unique in that it offers visitors the opportunity to peruse 3 large gallery spaces and visit 15 working studios in the back to watch artists creating in a myriad of mediums from oil paints to textiles to ceramics. Pop in for a First Friday Art Walk (every first Friday of the month from 6pm - 8pm) when all of the artists will be in their studios sharing their work at once. You can also register for one of the many workshops offered throughout the. month (from watercolor painting to wheel...