Matthew Ames Opens Walker Street Market, a Haven for Contemporary Craft
Inside a restored storefront in the Berkshires, the former fashion designer brings together more than 70 makers whose furniture, ceramics, lighting, and textiles celebrate the enduring beauty of the handmade
From his earliest days in fashion, Matthew Ames embraced a simple philosophy: the objects we live with should bear the evidence of their making. That conviction informed his career from an apprenticeship with Jurgi Persoons in Antwerp to the early-aughts launch of his womenswear label, which earned acclaim for garments distinguished by an elegant minimalism, meticulous construction, and an unwavering devotion to craftsmanship that allowed the maker’s hand to remain visible.
Over the past few years, after stepping away from fashion and joining design retailer Luminaire in Chicago, Ames began envisioning his next chapter: a gallery focused on handmade furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles, and other craft disciplines. “I wanted to create a destination in a smaller community surrounded by nature, somewhere people could escape the city or everyday life,” he tells Galerie. The Berkshires had long occupied that role in his own life. While operating his label in New York, he visited the Massachusetts highland region often, drawn by its thriving community of artists and makers. Those trips ultimately inspired his move there last year.
Now, he has pulled back the curtain on Walker Street Market, a design-focused gallery in Lenox that features a curated selection of artisan-made home goods. Housed inside a charmingly restored 3,000-square-foot building that once served as a dry goods purveyor and later a department store, the venue brings together the work of more than 70 artists and makers working across furniture, lighting, ceramics, textiles, glass, and metalwork. Some preserve longstanding traditions of furniture making, basketry, or weaving, while others reinterpret those same techniques through a contemporary lens. “Bringing those voices together in one interdisciplinary setting feels exciting,” Ames says.
The roster itself grew organically. Ames began reaching out to artists whose work he had admired for years, and many responded by introducing him to other makers whose practices aligned with his vision. “One of the most rewarding aspects has been seeing these artists in conversation with another,” he says. “You rarely encounter work like this together in the same room.”
At the heart of Walker Street Market is a collection of new commissions conceived specifically for the gallery, each available made-to-order. Sawyer Made contributed a nine-foot-long Shaker-inspired bench and cherry table that greet visitors at the entrance. Nearby, Simone Bodmer-Turner’s sinuous ceramic tables and lighting provide a striking contrast. Dreamlike textile panels by Kiva Motnyk hang beside hand-carved walnut pendants by Ashley Joseph Martin, whose monumental chandelier hovers above a walnut dining table by Vince Skelly. A floor-to-ceiling ceramic mural by Bruno Grizzo depicts birds, flora, and woodland creatures, while floral arrangements by James McGrath bring another layer of the natural world indoors.
Many of the gallery’s custom fixtures draw inspiration from nearby Hancock Shaker Village and the region’s long woodworking traditions. Ames enlisted Peter Thorne, a revered Berkshire woodworker, and his daughter, Lily, to craft Shaker-inspired shelving and a 38-foot peg rail that stretches across one of the gallery walls. The displays brim with handmade wares, from Village Handcraft’s sapling-handle brooms to a trove of woven baskets and richly textured fabrics by the likes of Madeline Weinrib and Megumi Arai. In the pantry, the Thornes installed a walnut countertop and an overscale plate rack that frames a fibrant ceramic tile mural by Shane Gabier.
The collection will grow as Ames expands his repertoire with new makers. “Discovering artists is one of my greatest passions, and I look forward to bringing new voices into the gallery as it evolves,” he says. Many of the larger commissions will remain in place, while smaller works will rotate regularly, giving returning visitors fresh discoveries with each visit.
Walker Street Market also includes a dedicated exhibition gallery that will present six to seven shows each year. The inaugural presentation, “Summer Camp,” introduces the artists and ideas behind the gallery through works that explore the territory between craftsmanship and artistic expression. Future exhibitions will allow Ames to plumb specific themes. This fall, for example, he plans to spotlight women working in woodcraft. “Woodworking has historically been a male-dominated field, so I’m excited to highlight a group of remarkable women who are expanding the possibilities of the medium and telling new stories through their work,” he says. Workshops will accompany many of the shows, including a stool-making class led by George Sawyer and a traditional Japanese noren-making workshop with textile artist Megumi Arai.
Community remains just as central to Ames’s vision as the objects themselves. The building once served as a neighborhood gathering place, and Walker Street Market plans to uphold that tradition by starting conversations around handmade work. “Building community is just as important as presenting objects,” he says. “As more of our lives move online and AI becomes increasingly present, people have a growing desire to reconnect with things made by human hands. My hope is that people not only discover these artists, but also engage directly with craft and develop an appreciation for the traditions that continue to shape contemporary making.”