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Story and photos by Olivia Hanson / The Hubbard School

Angie Brain had visited Signature Cafe on Warwick Street a few times and knew the charming building had potential—even after its ownership had been in flux for several years. 

“I would walk by and it was just like this amazing building that wasn't being really used much anymore after it was a restaurant,” said Brain, a former art teacher in the Anoka-Hennepin School District who moved to Prospect Park. 

So in 2020, Brain bought the building at 130 Warwick Street SE and transformed it into Signature Arts, a hidden gem that she renovated into part studio, arts therapy, part women’s sanctuary space and community hangout. 

It also hosts book clubs, weddings, art classes, graduation and birthday parties. Signature Arts has become a chameleon, both a community rental space and artist studio that is Brain’s creation. 

“I'm the one doing the lawn. I'm the one cleaning the patio. I'm vacuuming. I'm cleaning the toilets. I'm making the website. I'm registering the classes. I'm cleaning the art supplies,” Brain said. “I put all this energy in this and I want to.” 

To those who use it, the space is a haven.

Emily Jarrett Hughes praised Signature Arts for creating a community between people and nature with a focus on art. 

Jarrett Hughes has taught women’s traditional dance classes every Thursday at Signature Arts since November 2024. The dances are from the Balkans, Greece and Asia Minor.

“When we first got there, they had a meeting exhibit up. There were all of these scarves and shawls all around the room and it was like they were beings or ancestors surrounding us,” Jarrett Hughes said. “It was really delightful.”

Miriam Krause runs a pop-up book store, Catalyst Books & Gifts, in Signature Arts. The quaint bookshelf is filled to the brim with science-related books and knickknacks. 

Krause, a neighbor of Signature Arts for eight years , said the building has been a fixture of the Prospect Park community for decades. 

“There's been community space there of one way or another, whether it was a grocery store or a restaurant where people went on special occasions or the gallery that was there for a couple years,” Krause said. 

Brain started holding  “Womxn’s” Retreats in 2011 as a way to connect her love for art and nature. Previous art activities done at the retreat included printmaking, bookmaking, SAORI weaving and gelli printing. 

The retreats are held at Camp Menogyn near Grand Marais, where she and Chiaki O'Brien, SAORI weaving instructor and owner of Studio Fun, host activities for 30 campers at a time. The goal of her retreats is to bring women together, Brain said. 

“There's something that really is magical to me to be among women of all shapes and sizes and colors,” Brain said. “I try and emphasize women with the X in the name to feel inclusive, but I know that's just a start.”

An upcoming retreat is set to run for three nights at the end of September for $560 per camper. It includes three nights of lodging, meals, instruction, art materials, yoga, camp activities, trail guides and equipment.  

In her spare time, Brain is a substitute teacher and a mom to her teenage children. But most of her work and creative focus goes into Signature Arts, she said. 

“When you put a lot of work into something, but you love it so much, it doesn't feel like work,” Brain said. “It feels like this super energizing hobby, and I feel really proud of it. I feel like it's meaningful. I feel like it's purposeful.”