Oval artist management & gallery.

Owners: Carla Koen and Pepper Pepper

Address: 201 West Capitol Ave., Little Rock 72201

Phone: [phone]

Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday

Startup: Sept. 24, 2004

Web site: www.ovalartists.com

E-mail: [e-mail]

Carla Koen and Pepper Pepper want to broaden the way Little Rock residents look at art. With the planned September opening of Oval Artist Management & Gallery, the business owners hope to change the way patrons look at art and the way artists do business.

Koen worked in journalism for several years and originally met Pepper while working with the Up With Art program. They had discussed opening their own art business and conducted a kind of test run by organizing a workshop, "The Complete Artist," last fall.

The workshop was a success and Koen and Pepper located a building in "the nucleus of the city" to refurbish and open as their art gallery.

"We will have something that is present on both the East and West Coast, but virtually nonexistent in the central United States," Pepper said. "Our art business incubator will provide artists with meeting rooms, offices, office equipment, a receptionist, and other tools that those in the creative fields need to conduct business."

After signing a six-month contract, an artist will pay a monthly fee to use the business incubator shared office space. The business incubator will also provide a good place for artists to network with other artists and those in the creative field.

Koen said the building has 5,200 SF, and when the business opens she and Pepper will serve as the only employees. The gallery is not limited to Arkansas artists and there are very few restrictions placed on the type of art an artist can exhibit.

"We want to carry paintings, sculpture and jewelry," Koen said. "We hope to bring in groups of people who might not normally visit an art gallery. If we do a botanical exhibit, we would like a master gardener group to come in."

Koen and Pepper want to expose residents to a new way of thinking about art and expose artists to a new fan base.