BUFFALO, N.Y. — A new gallery space is opening up in downtown Buffalo with a mission to embody the resurgence and revitalization of the Queen City.

The Hunt Art Gallery is a beautiful historic building on Main Street where they are showcasing established artists upstairs, but downstairs they're showing support to emerging artists by providing studio space rent-free.

The residency program is a collaboration with the Buffalo Society of Artists and art management students from the University at Buffalo.

Six artists can use the space located in the Brisbane Building for four months at no cost simply by filling out an application online and being chosen.

It was the brainchild of the gallery’s curator who says the pandemic paused access to the art that artists continued to create and it was important to help bring that energy back to the forefront of the community.

"What it does is bring to a community what some people call a coolness factor and this is kind of exciting because what we're trying to do with downtown, obviously, is to bring people back and make it more of an integrated community in terms of residential, commercial, retail, etc," said Peter Hunt, Hunt Real Estate CEO.

The grand opening exhibition is Thursday at 6 p.m.

For more information about the program, click here.