Release the doves! Talent Gallery opens to the public on June 28, 2024(Geoffrey Riley / JPR News )

Downtown Talent has had a rough couple of years. The Almeda Drive fire in September 2020 burned down hundreds of homes in the city, and hopskotched its way through downtown, sparing some buildings while scorching others.

The old Malmgren Garage was among the unlucky ones, losing all of its flammable parts while the exterior concrete walls remained standing. That gave the owners something to build upon, and the Talent Gallery now occupies the renewed space, after a well-attended grand opening in June.
Bruce Bayard, the co-founder of the gallery, visits the JX with the story of its birth.