Skye Barker Maa of Neighborhood Music & Factory Fashion
PHOTOGRAPHED BY FROM THE HIP PHOTO
WRITTEN BY ESTHER LEE LEACH
Esther Lee Leach: Skye, you are a business powerhouse! You own several creative companies including Factory Five Five and Sky Bar. Your first business was Neighborhood Music which you created because of your son’s musical talent. Tell us more about Neighborhood Music and why it was important for you to create that type of learning environment for your sons and other kids?
Skye Barker Maa: I currently own Neighborhood Music (music school), Factory Fashion (fashion design and sewing school, mini incubator for designers, and houses Factory Fashion Champagne & Cocktail Bar), Factory Five Five (black box theater and community theater program), Sky Bar (mod luxe Pan-Am themed bar in the Stanley Marketplace) and am the executive director of two not-for-profits, jk-co dance (adult contemporary dance group) and Bizarre Café which is the immersive/experiential arm of our arts organizations.
Creatively, all my businesses overlap and grew out of a desire to collaborate and produce across artistic genres. As a producer, I try to provide platforms that are multidimensional so these art forms can exist together. This has also been my focus in providing educational classes. I want students to understand the full scope of what is possible through the arts when they collaborate and are inclusive versus exclusive in their study.
I launched Neighborhood Music because my three old son had an interest in music that seemed elevated for his age. I didn’t want the living room music lesson experience. I wanted him to see, touch, feel, smell and experience music more robustly. In my zeal to offer opportunities for him I accidentally started a music school in my basement. We grew fast. I started with two studios and eight teachers and had 200 students moving through my home by the time I signed my first commercial lease and moved the school out of my house.
ELL: You started Neighborhood Music out of your house and quickly expanded with a theater program. In 2018, you moved the business to Stanley Marketplace, a hub of community activity. What was the move like and how have you grown while being located at Stanley?
SBM: Three of my businesses are located at the Stanley Marketplace: Neighborhood Music, Factory Fashion and Sky Bar. The Stanley community focus and investment has always been attractive to me. The support of leadership is largely the reason that I have been able to expand and pursue new opportunities. Leadership cares that the members of their business community grow and thrive, and they make the time to help support and guide us.
I share this commitment with Stanley. In all my businesses, we are intimately involved in the lives of the families that we serve. Students typically come to us between the ages of 4-6 years. They leave with drivers licenses or having just been accepted into college. We bear witness to the triumphs and challenges of their lives: divorce, graduation, personal growth, COVID, lost jobs, success and failure. We see these families each week and are there to support and provide an artistic escape.
ELL: Another company, Factory Five Five focuses on various creative topics including fashion, film and photography. And you also launched Fashion Factory Champagne Bar. It is known as an artistic and inclusive community hub. Why was it important for you to expand with Factory Five Five?
SBM: Factory Five Five is an artistic collective that was launched out of a desire to pull the different aspects of our arts community together and provide a venue for artists to meet and collaborate. We launched Factory Five Five with our theater community and immediately started Factory Fashion. There was overlap between our theater company and the need for designers and costumers. As Factory Fashion expanded so did the mission of the organization. It became its own company focused on the fashion industry. We quickly outgrew our original space and moved Factory Fashion into the Stanley Marketplace and later opened the Factory Fashion Champagne Bar to provide both additional opportunities and revenue to support our arts organizations.
The survival path for artists and arts organizations is rocky and requires that we are more creative in how we use space, collaborative, inclusive with opportunities, and that we find ways to support each other and support the growth of the greater arts community. We have more power when we share it, and we are more viable when we are open to traditional and non-traditional ways to fund our endeavors.
ELL: Later this year, you will also be launching your own clothing brand! What’s your aesthetic and what is the process launching a fashion line in Denver?
SBM: Fashion is play and I cross a lot of genres. I always try to be chic even if I’m dressed in a streetwear-inspired mechanic jumpsuit and trucker hat. I am typically politely overdressed for every occasion meaning I’m always a little extra, but not out of place. A little flash never hurts and comfort is essential. I want everything I design (and in my closet) to be accessible as something you could wear and look/feel beautiful and sexy on any day, not something that you have to be in a specific mindset to wear.
I’m still learning the process of launching a line in Denver. I think the hardest part for me in the design process is to stay focused on one collection as I have ideas that cross into so many different styles.
ELL: Another project of yours is Sky Bar at Stanley which has a Pan-Am theme. Tell us more about this.
SBM: Sky Bar is a partnership with Patrick McMichael, an architect with Track Arch and Brandi Shigley from Fashion Denver. We’re a stylish craft cocktail bar that celebrates the “Golden Age of Air Travel.” A nod to simpler times when you could sip a quality drink with ample space and comfort high above the clouds. We have a strong nod to the mod luxe cocktail lounges that were popular when Pan Am ruled the airways. We are experiential. You check in at our boarding kiosk, you may receive a pre-flight cocktail, and you are escorted to our third floor Sky Bar – typically by an owner. We have beautiful views and a “golden hour,” when the sun sets, instead of happy hour. If you’re lucky enough to be in the bar for the sunset you’re in for a visual treat and a cocktail special!