Local artists across the neighborhood opened their doors this weekend for the return of East Boston Open Studios. Run by the East Boston Artists Group (EBAG), Open Studios is a one-day, inside look at the creative spaces of Eastie’s local talent, where you can meet the people behind the paintings and experience art where it’s actually made.

Across three locations, the 80 Border St Studios, The Gallery at Boston East, and the Zumix Firehouse, the event featured multidisciplinary arts, including paintings, photography, and even fonts.

“It’s a really good opportunity because studio space is expensive and not exactly readily available,” said Zumix Facilities Coordinator Brian Burke.

Zumix has a longstanding relationship with EBAG and has independently been using their space as a pop-up gallery of sorts for the past two years. Burke said they were excited to open up the firehouse to local artists. 

“I think it’s just nice to see adults being creative on a regular basis because people lose touch with that,” he said. “There seems to be a good local community that wants to support people in various ways, so it’s just nice to see neighbors in a different light.”

He added that the artists featured were largely not creating full-time but were pursuing passion projects in which the act of making something is more important than selling it.

Graphic designer Ines Benabida called the event a great opportunity to connect with other local artists and the neighbors in Eastie and beyond.

Benabida, who works as an industrial pharmacist by day, immigrated to the US for work in 2020. Faced with moving continents right before the COVID-19 pandemic, she took the chaos as a sign to return to her childhood dream of illustrating.

She added that, since joining EBAG in September, events like this have been helpful in building a more entrepreneurial mindset around her work.

“[Open Studios] tests how much of your hobby and passion can be translated into a commercial offering. That’s something to keep in mind,” she explained. “You don’t do it for the money, but it’s also always super informative.”

Multidisciplinary artist and EBAG co-founder Jesse Kahn called the event the best reason to clean up his studio.

Kahn’s studio featured a multitude of pieces, including custom typefaces created over his 30-year career as a graphic designer. Having spent much of the past year participating in a design program that had taken him away from creating art, Kahn was convinced by his husband to bring his letters to the masses.

“It feels really good to show both text-based art, completely abstract art, and typefaces that I’ve designed in the same space. It feels kind of whole to me,” he said.

Kahn recalled the formation of Open Studios as a way to put Eastie’s artists on the map.

“We knew we wanted to sort of make our presence known, both to the neighborhood and to the greater Boston arts community, that there was an arts community in East Boston,” he said.

At its peak in the early 2000s, Khan said it featured twice as many artists, hundreds of attendees, and even shuttle boats to bring people into the neighborhood for a multi-day event. 

“This one is our return after a number of years of not having been able to do it, because first COVID, and then people kind of forgot that we had done it,” he said. “It’s nice to think we’re back in a lot of ways, and getting new, interesting people coming to see it.”