The Building
Snowdrift Art Space is the gallery, studio, and home of Dan and Ann-Mary Lutzick on Historic Route 66 in downtown Winslow, Arizona. Built in 1914, the 22,000-square-foot building was originally home to the Babbitt Brothers Mercantile and, later, the Babbitt Brothers Department Store.
In 2002, Dan, a sculptor and partner on the La Posada Hotel rehabilitation project, purchased the former department store and began an extensive renovation process. Named after an old shortening advertisement still visible on its exterior east wall, Snowdrift now houses an extensive collection of Dan’s art work in a multipurpose space that includes a Main Gallery, Basement Studio, and the Lutzick’s home.
The Main Gallery
The 7,000-square-foot Main Gallery was originally the central sales floor of the Babbitt Brothers retail store. The space, which still boasts the original fourteen-feet-high pressed tin ceiling and large skylights, now houses Dan’s permanent large-scale sculptures as well as rotating groups of smaller sculptures in a wide range of materials. The Main Gallery also contains the Día de los Muertos Chapel, the Mandala Room, and the P.A. Ruscha Theater, a twenty-seat theater used for private screenings.
The Basement Studio
The 10,000-square-foot basement once housed the Babbitt Brothers sporting goods department. Today the area is divided into a central studio space surrounded by galleries of smaller works and storage for art materials.
The Lutzick’s Home
Downtown Winslow’s Historic Route 66 corridor is zoned for live/work occupancy, so the Lutzicks make their home in the building. They maintain living spaces, an office, and a library in a 5,000-square-foot area at the north end of the building, all of which is filled with Dan’s sculpture. Its second floor is a 2,300-square-foot loft overlooking the Main Gallery that still features a walk-in vault. In the 1920s, the loft housed the Babbitt’s Native American jewelry and weaving department
The Building History
In 2014, Snowdrift and the Old Trails Museum partnered to present the Snowdrift Art Space Centennial Celebration . As Director of the museum, Ann-Mary developed a new exhibit, Snowdrift Art Space: One Hundred Years of History, now on permanent display at Snowdrift and as PDFs below. The exhibit tells the story of the building’s evolution from the Babbitt Brothers’ largest branch store to today’s gallery, studio, and home.
