Regina Brejda had her share of naysayers.
Art galleries had come and gone in Augusta, and most of them were downtown. No one had really tried anything like that in west Augusta or Columbia County.
“People said ‘why not Savannah? Why not Charleston? Why not Atlanta?” said Brejda, whose 4P Studios marked its eighth anniversary Feb. 2 and celebrates with a reception from 3 to 5 p.m. Feb. 12 prior to Super Bowl festivities.
But her response to them was simple.
“Why not Augusta?” she asked.
Brejda, an Augusta University graduate, originally majored in business, but found her true passion in art. While she ended up with a degree in art, she was able to marry the knowledge she gained studying business when she started 4P Studios, a center for arts instruction as well as an art gallery.
“The four P’s are painting, photography, pottery and printmaking,” said Brejda.
The first location was a small space at Le Pavilion Shopping Center on the corner of Washington and Pleasant Home roads, where she and Declan Konesky started the enterprise. After a couple of years, Konesky moved out of the area to pursue his education, but Brejda not only kept her vision alive but expanded it.
In September 2019, 4P opened in a larger space at Roberts Road in Martinez.
Over the years, she’s added partnerships with different businesses to provide opportunities for artists to have their works seen by the public. One of the longest partnerships has been with the Augusta Regional Collaboration and its 600 Broad Gallery. She estimates that she’s hosted more than 400 art exhibitions during the past eight years.
Current exhibitions include the works of Michael Meissner, Jack Roy and Dan Dyches at the 600 Broad Gallery and the Eighth Anniversary exhibit featuring Alex Foltz, Amanda Flack, Callan Flack, Drew Brejda, Erica Pastecki. Jean Brejda, Kacee Reed, Lynn Reyes, May Tuschen, Megan Scureman, Patrick Krohn and Regina Brejda at 4P on Roberts Road.
She’s working on the second phase of her dream which includes an expanded pottery studio, which recently opened for classes and workshops.
A couple’s clay class is slated for Feb. 11 and a hand-built clay vase class is scheduled for Feb. 17.
Her longtime dream has been to have a space where artists could come and create.
“When I was in art school, so many complained that there was no way to access equipment once they graduated,” she said, citing kilns and dark rooms as items the students would like to be able to use.
Now that the pottery studio is completed, the next space to build is a darkroom.
“We have the equipment. It’s just building out the space,” she said.
Also on her list of projects is to expand the ecommerce portion of the website, providing artists another outlet to get their art in the hands of customers.
A complete list of upcoming classes and workshops is available at the website.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the publisher of Augusta Good News. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Subscribe to the newsletter here.
