CLEVELAND — In many communities, the local barbershop has been known as a place of dialogue, conversation, and relief.
For Adam Jackson, owner of Brilliant Cuts Barber Studio and Lounges CLE, there's a clear theme of connection that runs through his work as a visual artist and his business ventures, and that theme started at an early age.
"I've always been in love with the barber culture — used to get my hair cut on 116th and Buckeye, and I still remember that whole environment," Jackson recalled. "They played the best movies, the best music. That's kind of where everybody congregated."
Jackson’' barber roots run deep: His grandmother is a master barber and beautician, his mother is a barber, and he started cutting his own hair as a teenager. But he didn't consider a career in the industry until recently, after he ended his military service.
"I was in the Navy for awhile, and I got injured in the military," he said. "Ended up getting out, and decided, 'Well, I'm going to fall right on my barbering.'"
Adam quickly noticed an opportunity to fuse his artistry with the barbershop, with themes of community gathering and dialogue. That seed of an idea has now become one of the fastest-growing artist hubs in Cleveland: Lounges CLE.
"One thing that I noticed when I got back [to Cleveland], there was a shortage of art houses," he explained. "I'm an artist myself, so, [it’s about] having a space where I can not only have a co-working environment; I can also have an art gallery, and then have spaces where exhibitions can be thrown.
And for Adam, the difference between barbering and other art forms is non-existent.
"Everything's art; cutting hair is just a head being a canvas," he said. "There's mixed media art in here, there's traditional paint and canvas art in here."
Today, Lounges is more than a gallery; it's also a place for special events, workshops, and even film shoots. This content hub has many purposes, and for Adam, this plan is only at its beginning.
"All of my peers that [are] in the military, they're about to come up on retirement," he noted. "Well, they're looking for something to do. This right here, this is what I did when my retirement. I took that retirement and invested into a space. I plan on doing this everywhere with my retired homies, where it can be Lounges Detroit, Lounges Connecticut. It should be something like this everywhere."
For Adam, investing his time and energy into these ventures isn't work.
"This is just a big old playground for me," he said. "I'm cutting hair, I'm having fun, but at the same time, I'm creating."