Soap Gallery co-owner Daniel Rauschenbach is shown in a 2020 file photo at the downtown Youngstown Gallery. Rauschenbach and co-owner Stephen Poullas are closing the gallery Friday after eight years in business.

YOUNGSTOWN — Lit Youngstown Director Karen Schubert called the Soap Gallery, “The absolute beating heart of the arts downtown.”

The arts space will beat no more after Friday.

The gallery at 117 S. Champion St. was started by Stephen Poullas and Daniel Rauschenbach and opened in October 2015. Including shows they did at restaurants and special events as well as the gallery, they presented more than 100 exhibitions during that time.

Poullas said the gallery is closing because the building’s owner, Tim Huber, wants to expand the space and turn it into an events center, but he also said it was difficult to run a for-profit gallery in this region.

“We’ve got to sell $5,000 every single month,” he said. “With some shows we were able to do that, but we also had shows where we sold zero. You need some other sort of revenue stream other than just art.”

The gallery supplemented its revenue by hosting public and private events. The final event will be a concert Friday featuring singer-songwriters Jann Klose and JD Eicher, and the site also hosted Eicher’s Summer Songfest, which had an outdoor stage and closed off the street.

Lit Youngstown regularly used the space for its First Wednesday Reader Series events, which featured local, regional and national poets and authors.

“We’re so grateful to them for being champions of local artists and hosting our reading series,” Schubert said. “We loved being there so much, and there was always something great going on there. We’re so grateful to Daniel and Stephen and wish them well.”

Lit Youngstown is moving its First Wednesday Readers Series to Westside Bowl starting May 3. Rauschenbach will be opening The Sage Gallery at 118 S. Bridge St, Struthers, in September. Poullas said he plans to take a break before deciding his next move.

“I tried to look for some property downtown but couldn’t find anything,” Poullas said. “The rent is pretty expensive.”

Rauschenbach said plenty of new construction is taking place downtown, but most of those buildings will be apartments or restaurants, and he wondered whether there will be space downtown for places like Soap Gallery and the live music venue Cedars Lounge, which moved out of downtown a decade ago after its building changed ownership.

“I think it’s going to take a few years for downtown Youngstown to find its new identity,” Rauschenbach said.

Both have many fond memories of Soap Gallery. Rauschenbach cited multiple exhibitions featuring Youngstown artist Chris Yambar, who died in 2021, and said the gallery featured the work of several area artists who’ve passed away in recent years.

Poullas said one of the highlights for him was hosting an exhibition by Raymond Towler, who spent 29 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

“We did some impactful things, hopefully,” Poullas said. “It’s going to leave a void for a little bit, but I think someone will step up to the table and fill it.”