Oozing with charm, the six artist cottages in downtown Bonita Springs are home to the businesses of an eclectic group of creative souls. One houses a guitar maker. Another, a painter. Two pine needle basket makers share a hut on the end. Built in 1945 as fishing shacks along the Imperial River, these tiny structures were moved to Riverside Park about 25 years ago and now are located right behind the Liles Hotel and its iconic fountain. Except when there’s an art fair in the park, there’s plenty of parking spaces nearby.
At number four, ceramicist Kelly Campbell has been an artist in residence for about two years. Her Gulf Coast Pottery business occupies a tidy one-room cottage that holds a display space for her wares as well as a work area in the back where she stashes two potter’s wheels and an assortment of tools and supplies. If you’re lucky, you might catch her outdoors throwing pots.
Campbell is generally there on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and often other days as well. Usually, she can be found at her cottage when she’s not busy at Arts Center Bonita, where she teaches classes and heads up the ceramics department. If the door is open, she says, come on in and look around.
A 2013 graduate of Florida Gulf Coast University’s art department, Kelly is open and friendly, easy to chat with. She’s been based in this particular cottage since March 2024; it had to be renovated after Hurricane Ian in 2023 flooded the tiny structures with more than a foot of water. But she’s been involved with the cottages since 2012, when the building next door was used by FGCU art students to display and sell their artwork to help finance educational travel…