On July 17, Billy Ludwig, artist, musician and entrepreneur, will open Massillon’s first art gallery, an event celebrated with live music, lumberjack/chainsaw carving demonstrations and cold draft beer at 28 Charles Street.

The street will be closed off and the music will be outside, drawing in crowds to come see the many different forms of art from some of Northeast Ohio’s most talented artists. These include Shock Studios, Bili Kribbs, Scot Philips, Steve Ehret and Megan Mars to name a few.

“I’m an artist myself,” Ludwig says. “And working with other artists, we’ve been pretty aggressive over the past year about getting our artwork out there and making people more aware in Massillon that there is a big art movement. We needed a home base.”

And that’s just what Thirteenth Floor provides, not just for the artists, but the audience as well.

“I think we have a very large audience. We just needed an actual gallery in Massillon,” he says.

Ludwig plans on doing as much as he can with the gallery. “We’ll be doing lots of events through the gallery, mixing it up with art and music,” he says. It appears the city is excited about it too, as Ludwig has met with the mayor and city council several times, and was even given a grant to start up the gallery. It seems like a win-win for both the city and Ludwig.

“I wanna try to draw in other businesses that will complement the gallery,” he explains. He wants his gallery to be one-of-a-kind.

“I like the name since the thirteenth floor doesn’t really exist and it’s rare to find one. I thought, what’s inside the gallery would also be pretty rare as well.” And for Massillon’s first and only art gallery, that couldn’t be more accurate.

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