Longtime Port artist to close downtown studio

Port Washington artist Shirley Schanen Gruen, who has had a studio in downtown for 40 years, is putting down her palette and taking down her easel.

Her studio at 303 N. Franklin St. will close with a reception from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 24.

“It’s the end of an era,” her daughter-in-law Jean Gruen said. 

But that doesn’t mean Port will be without an art studio. 

Mequon resident Linda Sanduski will open Blue Awning Gallery — “For its iconic blue awnings,” she said — in Gruen’s studio.