About Us
We know the art, the artists, the community + how to connect them all!

Art EverySpace is a Cleveland-based, women-owned small business founded in 2019. We are a strong team of 5 award-winning partners with over 140 years of collective experience in arts + culture. The partners, Christy Gray, Hillary Lyon, Liz Maugans, Sean Watterson, and Bruce Checefsky – all have diverse backgrounds and experiences.
As business owners, property owners, curators, arts administrators, arts advocates, neighborhood builders, artists, art consultants, and more…. we believe a new story can be told by Cleveland artists. We partner with real estate developers, building owners, and others to connect people and enhance the quality of shared spaces.
Check out our bios + personal experiences below!
The Partners
Quality People Combining Their Expertise to Create an Unparalleled Experience
Liz Maugans
Liz is the Director of YARDS Projects and curator of the Dalad Collection at Worthington Yards in Cleveland’s Warehouse District. She co-founded and is the Former Executive Director of Zygote Press, a non-profit printmaking studio also located in Cleveland, Ohio. She founded the Collective Arts Network, a quarterly journal, online resource, and arts consortium that works to promote Northeast Ohio artists and organizations to a greater audience. She is the founder of the Artist Trust, an open-access collective arts project and artist registry to better connect Cuyahoga County Artists of all disciplines to each other and the greater community.
Maugans was instrumental in bringing the Rooms-to-Let Project to Slavic Village and acts as a consultant and participant of the temporary installations that take place in foreclosed houses. Maugans chaired the Community Advisory Committee for FRONT International Triennial and is an active Board Trustee of the Collective Arts Network. Curatorial, Arts engagement, and civic connection through the arts.


Hillary Lyon
Hillary has been in the Architecture/Engineering/Construction industry for more than eight years, with over twenty years of experience marketing a variety of products and services. In 2019, Lyon received an Executive MBA at Weatherhead, Case Western Reserve University. After graduating from Hathaway Brown School, she attended the University of Denver for undergrad and also has a graphic design degree from the Art Institute of Colorado. An experienced events and development professional, Lyon serves on several local boards/committees and is a supporter of arts and culture in NEO.
Lyon is a former Cleveland Leadership Center board member and served on Leadership Council for 5 years. She has been on the host committee for CLC’s Accelerate since its inception, stepping down to pitch on 2.27.19 https://www.cleveleads.org/events/accelerate/accelerate-2019-presenters/ She joined the commercial real estate organization, NAIOP, board in 2019 as Communications Chair and Design of Excellence Awards Chair. Lyon was a member of the AIA Design Awards and SPACES gallery fundraiser planning committees for several years. Currently, she is also the co-chair of FORE the Kids, a circle of friends’ golf outing benefiting UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.
Christy Gray
Christy is an art and design professional with over 20 years of experience in project management, organization, planning, sales, and marketing. Gray works with clients to create a diverse mix of artwork for their environments that both enhances their space and communicates their mission, by handling all aspects of art acquisition from working with the artists to installation. This includes developing artwork presentations and budget management to collaborating with artists and clients to develop commissioned artwork for public spaces. Gray serves on the board of Praxis Fiber Workshop and chairs the Northern Ohio Surfrider Foundation chapter.
On a personal level, Gray has demonstrated her ability to work on a wide cross-section of projects while balancing an art career. As a textile artist, Gray has work installed in public and private collections. Any day that time and weather permit, you can find Christy paddle boarding on Lake Erie.
Gray Haus Studios, Fine Art Consulting Services, grayhausstudios.com


Bruce Checefsky
Bruce received a Master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Art and BS in Museum Studies from Kutztown University. He also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York City. As former director of the Reinberger Galleries Cleveland Institute of Art, he’s curated over two hundred national and international exhibitions of contemporary art and design. His writings on art and culture have been extensively published in museum catalogs, art magazines, and regional newspapers. Checefsky has been influential in the acquisition of contemporary art for numerous private collectors and corporate art holdings.
Checefsky is the recipient of the Medal of Excellence, Cleveland Institute of Art’s highest honor; a CPAC Creative Artist Fellowship; three Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Excellence Awards; Judson Award for Service and Artistic Achievement; Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement for Cultural Exhibitions; and Rothermel Award for Professional Achievement. He is a four-time recipient of CEC ArtsLink International Fellowships.
Sean Watterson
Sean is President and Co-Owner of The Happy Dog, a neighborhood corner bar, restaurant, and live music venue located in Cleveland’s Gordon Square Arts District (happydogcleveland.com). The Happy Dog hosts live, original music, from rock and country to punk and polka, and talks by scientists, writers, and academics on topics ranging from the origins of the universe to the current state of world affairs.
Sean is a graduate of University School (’87), Williams College (’91), and Case Western Reserve University School of Law (’01). He began his professional career in Cleveland as a stockbroker (Baker & Co., Inc.) and a municipal bond trader (Cowen & Co.) before attending law school. In 2001, he joined the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission’s Office of International Affairs in Washington DC, focusing on cross-border enforcement cooperation, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism finance. He represented the Commission at several international forums, including the Financial Action Task Force, the Council of Securities Regulators of the Americas, and the International Organization of Securities Commissions. After leaving the SEC in 2005, he worked on global anti-money laundering issues for Citigroup and Merrill Lynch in New York, and emerging risk for Bank of America.
Since returning to Cleveland in 2009, he has been active in the community, heading the Detroit-Shoreway Merchants Association, serving on the Gordon Square Arts District and Gordon Square Special Improvement District Boards, the Cleveland Music Club Coalition, the Community Partnership for Arts & Culture, the Cleveland Arts Prize, and the Visiting Committee of The Institute for the Science of Origins. He continues to consult on anti-money laundering issues on a part-time basis, working most recently in Pakistan and Ukraine and is on the faculty of Case Western Reserve University School of Law’s Financial Integrity Institute.


Our Mission + Vision

MISSION
Art EverySpace is committed to enriching the experience of communities living and working in properties through the Art EverySpace Program. An innovative approach that brings contemporary art, by emerging and mid-career artists, to non-traditional exhibition spaces. Displaying amazing local art with the goals of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting, welcoming, relaxing environment for building occupants, residents, and guests.

VISION
Art EverySpace’s position within the visual arts sector is unique. Art EverySpace sits within the sector as a support program, intersecting and connecting, both the non-commercial and commercial galleries. Art EverySpace has similarities with other collecting institutions in terms of how it undertakes aspects of business-the difference is why we collect artwork for the collection and how we engage and promote art to stakeholders, clients, as well as the broader public. For the broader community, Art EverySpace makes Cleveland’s contemporary art accessible in ways that other collecting institutions cannot.