A Place to Be Creative in Matawan

CHASHAMA PROVIDES AFFORDABLE STUDIO SPACE TO PAINTERS, SCULPTORS AND OTHER ARTISTS

- BY JENNIFER ALTMANN

Painter Justin DeMattico wanted to find an art studio where he would have the room to work on his paintings. In 2023, he discovered Chashama, a non-profit that transforms vacant real estate into studios and galleries for artists.

He now has a 240-square-foot studio in Matawan where he can work on multiple paintings at one time and bring in models to sit for him. “This place is amazing. It gives me a place to be creative outside my house,” said DeMattico, a graduate of Monmouth University who is an adjunct professor of art at Brookdale Community College.

Open since 2017, the building on Matawan's Main Street has 11 studios, which are rented at below-market rates to sculptors, photographers, painters, filmmakers and mixed-media artists. The building also has a gallery space where several art shows are presented each year.

Chashama was founded in 1995 by Anita Durst, who recognized that a lack of affordable space was the biggest threat to the artistic community. She created it as a tribute to Reza Abdoh, an Iranian playwright and director with whom she collaborated as an actress and producer in the 1980s. The word Chashama roughly translates as “to have vision” in Farsi.