Our Story
Rooted in Ely
At Art & Soul Gallery & Gift House, our mission is to connect the community — and world — with local artists while promoting creativity and craftsmanship and supporting the local economy.
How it All Began
Born from a Bold Idea
And 145 people who believed in it
In May of 2016, artist Nancy Scheibe had a simple but ambitious idea: Ely had too many talented artists and not enough places to show their work. So she did something about it. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign backed by 145 individuals and organizations, Art & Soul opened its doors at 427 East Sheridan Street — inside a building that has housed a grocery store, a meat market, a restaurant, and a women's gym since the 1890s. Display walls made from recycled doors, shutters repurposed as fixtures, and a table at the front where artists could work while working their shifts.
From day one, this was a place made by artists, for artists — and two murals painted on the sides of the building have announced that fact to everyone walking down Sheridan Street ever since.
When you buy from an artist, you are investing in years of experimentation, mistakes, and breakthroughs — and the courage it takes to turn passion into a livelihood.
Growing the Vision
A Gallery Built to Last
Ten years in, and just getting started
In 2019, founding artist Pamela J. Davis purchased both the gallery and the building, remodeled the space, and expanded its vision to the second floor — classrooms for artists to teach, and Pamela's own looms where guests can watch her work. When the pandemic threatened to close the doors, a grant from the City of Ely helped keep the gallery going. Today, Art & Soul is home to sixteen artists working across painting, leather art, jewelry, pottery, woodwork, scratchboard, photography, and more — open year-round, staffed by artists who love what they do. This year, we celebrate ten years.
Our Mission
Art & Soul exists to give local artists a place to show their work — and to give everyone who walks through the door a first-class gallery experience. From painting and pottery to leather art, jewelry, basket weaving, woodwork, scratchboard, photography, and more, our sixteen artists represent the full creative range of northern Minnesota. Our visitors come from all over the world, drawn to Ely for the Boundary Waters and the art scene that has grown up alongside it.
Our Home
Ely, Minnesota
Ely sits at the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota — one of the most pristine wild places in North America. It's a town of canoe launches and pine-scented air, of dark skies so clear the Milky Way stops you in your tracks. But it's also a town with a deep and surprising creative soul.
For a small town, Ely is big on art. It always has been. The landscape that draws adventurers from around the world — the lakes, the forests, the long northern light — draws artists too. It gets into you. You start to notice things differently. You start to make things.
Art & Soul Gallery is part of that tradition. We're on Sheridan Street, right in the heart of town, and we think there's no better place on earth to make and share art.
