Lumenhouse owners Marshall Coles and Aurora Robson, with daughter Ona. The space received a donation to stay afloat for another year. — Photo by Diego Cupolo.

With news of recession-related disruption in the local art market came the expectation that many spaces would have to close. Instead, some new spaces have opened, and others persevered.

Ad Hoc Art on Bogart Street joined forces with Eastern District gallery next door after being replaced by a DJ-equipment warehouse. Lumenhouse, a photo studio and sometime gallery on Beaver Street, originally planned to close on February 1 and vacate their space due to financial constraints. But thanks to a grant from the Arthur Levine Foundation, an arts donor, the business will remain open for at least another year.

Lumenhouse started as the studio of artist Aurora Robson, who makes large sculptures out of plastic bottles and other reused consumer materials combined with LEDs. “Large” is actually quite an inadequate word to describe Robson’s work — one 65-foot piece consists of 9,000 bottles; another, at 45 feet, is made up of 15,000 bottles. It has since become something of a hub for Bushwick’s arts community, hosting fundraisers, yoga classes, and artists’ studios. Its curved white photography wall is rented out by the hour, and is said to be one of the cheapest in the city.

The grant (“It isn’t technically a grant — the foundation is essentially subsidizing the studio,” points out Robson) will sustain Lumenhouse for the next year, with a few changes.

The area available for photography has been expanded, and where four studios once were, there are now two, one of which Robson uses for smaller pieces, the other rented to artist Xiomara DeOliver. The subsidy will also enable Lumenhouse to donate its space to other organizations and hold free or donation-only events.

“We no longer take a cut from yoga classes,” Robson says, “nor will we need to charge Arts in Bushwick to host their annual art auction in our space this year.”

Robson says she and her husband, Marshall Coles, have sunk so much money and time into the space that the Foundation is allowing them to clear their red ink with the proceeds from the photography rental. The couple hopes to eventually incorporate Lumenhouse as a non-profit.

Any profits Lumenhouse does turn in the mean time will be used to “green up” the space in all senses — by installing solar panels and energy-sipping LED lighting, the space can become more earth-friendly and financially sustainable.