LAKE WORTH’S NODOSO A GALLERY FOR ONE AND ALL
Sitting inside NoDoSo — short for North Down South — at 609 Lake Ave., Jerusha Benjamin almost looks like one of the fine pieces of art she has hanging on her wall.
Benjamin, a slender woman with dark hair, is wearing a colorful dress that brightens the room. She has a distinctive nose ring and is extremely intelligent.
“I’m a Bronx girl bringing some of that ‘Bronx Boogie’ down here to all the folks in Florida,” she said, laughing hard.
Benjamin, 38, owns and operates NoDoSo, an art gallery and event space that opened Wednesday. She has recruited 57 artists who have something interesting and funky to say.
“I don’t want to compete with my fellow business owners, so I don’t carry things that are too similar to what they carry,” she said. “I have 57 bosses so everybody has to be cool with one another.”
She also sells soaps, candles, sunglasses and jewelry, some for as little as $20. Benjamin also sells some expensive work that goes as high as $10,000.
“There are definitely people who are collectors and who do want to spend that kind of money,” she said. “It’s a statement piece.”
Benjamin lived in Deerfield Beach for nine years and worked at Office Depot in Boca Raton. She wanted to move farther north but wasn’t sure where. Properties weren’t cheap. When a friend first mentioned Lake Worth, Benjamin wasn’t that interested.
“I had only been west of Interstate 95, so it wasn’t that attractive,” she said. “I love being about a mile from the beach. Why else do you live in Florida?”
So, she called her broker and they looked at a few houses and went downtown. That was it for her.
“The moment I got downtown, I said, ‘I’m home,’” she recalled. “The vibe, the people. There weren’t big, corporate businesses here and the people are real, they look you in the eye and tell you about themselves. It almost felt like a tropical Brooklyn.”
Then she passed 609 Lake Ave.
“It was like a divine hand turned my head and I said, ‘What is that?’” she said. “I called the owner the next day, and I met with her the following week and we started negotiating. I told my corporate guys, ‘you have three months to figure it out, I just bought a gallery.’”
Actually, Benjamin is leasing the space but declined to say how much she pays in monthly rent.
“My landlord has been very fair to me and worked within my budget,” she said.
NoDoSo is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and is open Wednesday-Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturdays and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The idea for the business came when Benjamin was taking a business class at age 15.
“The instructor said, come up with a viable business plan and say how it would make money,” she said. “I came up with an artist cooperative. Basically, I know a lot of artists struggle.”
Her first name is biblical, coming from the Old Testament and it means “precious possession, valued one.” It also, Benjamin said, means “one who is betrothed.”
“The last part,” Benjamin said, “is kind of a joke because I’ve been proposed to six times, engaged three times and never married.”
Then she laughs. Hard again.
“I’m a very individual person,” she said, smiling. “I’ve always done things by my own sweat.”