Pique provides a new artistic opportunity in Covington

Pique is Covington’s newest artistic space, combining an art gallery, workshops and classes with weekend rental living spaces. Owner Lindsey Whittle and her husband purchased the building at 210 Pike St. with the idea of turning the accompanying storefront into some type of art space.
 
“In the end, we decided we wanted to create a space for artists that had a lot of benefits, a sense of community and the opportunities of art academia outside of art school,” Whittle says.
 
The building itself is also an Airbnb, which she and co-owner Annie Brown say gives guests an immersive gallery experience.
 
“We had to find a way to fund the art space,” Whittle says. “We thought about starting a collective of artists who would chip in to pay for the space and then all help run it, but we realized that we were tired of artists losing money and not making money. So we started talking to people and strategizing a way to afford the space that would help promote artists instead of taking from them. We also wanted people to experience the art in every way they can, and sleeping with it gives the gallery experience a more intimate level.”
 
Pique is designed so that it’s always evolving and changing. The main gallery takes up the building’s entire first floor, which includes a traditional gallery space in front, and as you walk through the space there are smaller rooms that offer a more intimate setting for artwork. There’s also a community gallery that provides space for artists and the community to experiment with displaying artwork.
 
The plan is to have at least six shows in the main gallery each year. The community gallery is more open-ended, and the featured artists can dictate how long the show is up, from a pop-up on a weekend to a week- or month-long exhibit.
 
“We hope to bring awesome opportunities, attention, artists, art, ideas and experiences to Covington,” Whittle says. “To quote the Kid President: ‘If it doesn’t make the world more awesome, don’t do it.’ We want to start a movement.”
 
Whittle and Brown also want to connect artists with other artists as well as connect art and artists to the community.
 
“We hope to be a support system for creative people and hope they will pitch us their crazy ideas,” Whittle says. “We’ll do our best to find ways to help them make those ideas happen.”
 
Currently, Pique is featuring “Supernova Sequential,” a comic book exhibition that highlights the work of self-publishing comic book artists Clint Basinger and Joseph Morris. In the community gallery, there’s a documentation called “Climbing the Steps in INC,” by local artist Jonathan Hancock, who chronicles his experience at the International Noise Conference.
 
Classes and workshops are taught during the week, with the weekends reserved for Airbnb guests.