The Ambry Library prepares to open its doors to the Linden community

Growing up in Linden, Sicquan Gipson said he often felt cut off from the rest of Columbus, describing the neighborhood as “a bubble” that then existed at a remove from the cultural offerings present elsewhere in the city. “I didn’t even know what Clintonville was until I was like 16,” Sicquan said, and laughed. “You’d be surprised at how little people can get outside of their situations when there isn’t someone or someplace to take them there.”

Fortunately for Sicquan, he was raised in a music-rich household – a reality he credited in large part to his bloodlines. Gipson’s second cousin, Danyel Morgan, played bass alongside Robert Randolph, and his mother, brother, and grandmother all play instruments, as do myriad cousins. “Then I’d see my other friends, and it was clear they didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about [the arts], and they didn’t have the same access,” said Gipson, who joined his partner, Theresa Ann Gipson, for an early February interview. “And I don’t know whether it was time- or money-prohibitive.”

With the Ambry Library, which will celebrate its grand opening at 1392 E. Weber Rd. in Linden on Saturday, Feb. 7, the Gipsons hope to fill this void within the neighborhood, creating an arts-focused space that will serve as an intimate concert venue, a gallery, and a library, as well as a center for community gathering and education.

“We want this to be a hub where people can meet and share their art,” Theresa Ann said, “but also a launching pad to bring music and art to places it typically wouldn’t be able to go.”

This could also mean offering up the space to artists and musicians just starting off in their respective fields, with Sicquan expressing an interest in partnering with schools such as Fort Hayes to allow students to exhibit their work absent any associated gallery fees. “We just want them to be able to get some experience putting in their own installations,” he said. “We want this to be a place where people who are potentially less confident in what they are doing can gain that confidence.” 

The couple traced the roots of Ambry Library to a first anniversary trip to San Diego three years back and the discovery of the Athenaeum – a music venue, art gallery, and book shop. “And after we got back home, we started doing some research and we learned there are only three or four arts-focused community libraries in the United States,” said Sicquan, a saxophonist who made his onstage debut at Woodland’s Tavern at age 16. “And there were none on this side of the Mississippi. So, we figured there needed to be one.”

Initially, the two planned to launch the nonprofit – Ambry Library is a registered 501(c)3 – as an after-school program, gradually building toward the establishment of a physical space of their own. But these plans changed three or four months back when the two drove past the Weber Street location and noticed it was available for rent. “Originally the thought was, ‘Go to the people, then later ask them to come to us,’” Sicquan said. “But as you can tell, here we are.”

Sicquan could have meant this quite literally; when reached via Google Meet, the couple was on-site at Ambry Library working on finishing touches. “We’re at the taping and painting stage now,” Sicquan said. “And we’re probably still going to put another 50 [hours] in this week just making sure everything is buttoned up.”

The renovated building includes a large, street-facing front room, which will in time become the library and community gathering hub. (Ambry Library will open with roughly 500 books available to check out, the bulk of which are focused on the arts.) To the rear is the smaller gallery/performance space, which will host intimate concerts. Moving forward, both the building and the programming will function as a work-in-progress, with plans for more expansive bookshelves already in place, along with in-development programming that will range from music and arts education classes to themed concert nights.

“One of the things we hope to do in the very near future is something called ‘In a Room,’ where we’ll bring in a local musician, sit them in a room that can hold 30 or 35 people, and have them play an acoustic show and talk about their art,” said Sicquan, who would also like to establish a jazz jam, pointing to similar events at venues such as Dick’s Den and Ginger Rabbit as models. “Upon opening, the hope is we’ll have something going on here at least one night a week, and then our optimal operating time would probably be something like three nights a week.”

In time, the couple would like to expand to include daytime open hours, and they’ve talked about the idea of partnering with a coffee cart, which could set up outside of the space and provide drinks for patrons visiting the library. “I think having something in the middle of the neighborhood that people can walk to, it’s going to be a big deal,” Sicquan said. “I want to make sure we can all be one community.”