Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week is back April 15-21!

Inside The Lodge, an Arts Incubator Located in a Century-Old Masonic Temple in Dayton, Kentucky

By CityBeat Staff on Thu, Sep 26, 2019 at 7:30 pm

The Lodge is located in a remodeled 9,000-square-foot Masonic Temple that is now bustling with artistic pursuits of all sorts. The conversion began when owner Scott Beseler purchased the Dayton, Kentucky building in 2011 and it has grown steadily ever since. The space is now home to recording studio, performance and event space and offers rental studios for photography, music, painting and screen printing. The goal behind The Lodge was to build a space where creators could have a place to practice their craft and have the resources to grow as artists. “We cater mostly to musicians and small businesses looking to materialize their artistic and branding needs,” Beseler said in an email interview. “A band can record their music, have their merchandise made, press photos taken, and have a music video done all under one roof.” Currently, The Lodge has a handful of resident artists who rent out the space, like the mural artists of Xylene who are known for their “Looking Good” mural on the side of Over-the-Rhine’s Know Theater as well as some upcoming BLINK murals in addition to national mural work. Local musicians Yusef Quotah, Mr. Phylzzz and All-Seeing Eyes rent the space to work on music. Photographer Nikita Gross rents out the space for her film work and is in the process of building a dark room in the space. The Lodge is also home to audio engineers Paul Brumm, John Curley of Ultrasuede Studios and John Hoffman. They are currently seeking another photographer and a screen printer to join The Lodge. Some popular names to recently record in the space include Walk The Moon, Eric Nally, The Ophelias, Bootsy Collins, Pujol, Arlo McKinley and Ricky Nye. It’s also become a cool under-the-radar live music venue, hosting shows by the likes of Erika Wennerstrom of Heartless Bastards, James Leg of Black Diamond Heavies and many others. You never know who will pop into The Lodge — Jack White visited when he was in town last summer. In addition to live music, the Lodge also hosts a variety of events like film screenings, figure drawing classes, art shows and more. They will soon be hosting an interview listening party for a lost 1976 David Bowie tape recording of an interview by RKO radio, which was debuted before being played on American radio. The event will be hosted by the man who has held on to the tape.