A creative reuse has been found for the Ross store in downtown San Jose that closed its doors this summer. A group of South Bay artists, led by the Exhibition District’s Erin Salazar and Chris Morrish, are transforming the empty shell into an enclave for artists called Local Color.

The 20,000 square-foot pop-up space at 27 S. First Street has its ribbon cutting Thursday at 5 p.m., and the space will be open for the public to explore all evening. It includes a performance space, a retail shop and a public mural wall; The store’s former shoe racks are being converted into dividers to create studio bays that artists can rent out.

“We’ve turned the artist formerly known as Ross into a creative haven for artists,” said Salazar, a mural painter and seamstress whose Exhibition District nonprofit has been beautifying walls in San Jose for more than two years. “We have about half of that space allocated for very safe artists studios, and we really want to pursue visual arts programming in the space.”

The San Jose Downtown Association is sponsoring the venue and was instrumental in securing the building, which has a tear-down and development project in the works for its future. The San Jose Downtown Association’s Nate Echeverria said the Bader and Sarimsakci families, who bought the former Woolworth’s building and opened Black Sea Gallery furniture store there in 2007, are arts-oriented people and have been very supportive of the project. Local Color has been guaranteed two months in the space, but it could stay longer if the project is successful and the building remains available.

Sadly, when people hear “artist enclave” these days, minds immediately go to the Ghost Ship fire tragedy in Oakland that left many dead. But Downtown Association Scott Knies assured me there’s absolutely no comparison to be made: Nobody will be living in the space, its electrical and fire-safety systems are all still functional after Ross departed and there will be safety inspections.

I got a look at the space at a preview event last week, and it’s a great opportunity for San Jose’s creative community — young and less young. And it’s an opportunity that probably would have been blocked by red tape and motivational malaise just a few years ago. There have been a few signs since the Super Bowl in February that San Jose’s “culture of no” is starting to shift and this is another.

MOVIN’ AND SHAKIN’ WITH THE ART CROWD: Erin Salazar was one three people honored Tuesday night with the Movers and Shakers Award from genARTS Silicon Valley, a networking group for emerging arts professionals.

The other recipients were educator and Future Arts Now! founder Demone Carter and author and artist Gary Singh. All three have done a tremendous job of showcasing and encouraging the work of others while continuing to be artists in their own right.

The awards reception was at Ken Matsumoto‘s Art Object Gallery, which later in the evening hosted Content magazine‘s celebration of its fifth anniversary in print. Congratulations to founders Sarah and Daniel García for continuing to chronicle the city’s arts and culture scene and to Silicon Valley Creates CEO Connie Martinez for giving the magazine a new home a couple of years back.