On an industrial strip of Umbria Street, situated between the Elite Sports Factory and MAC Renovations + Design, and just beyond where Manayunk cedes to Roxborough, two signs hang side by side.

One sign at 5100 Umbria is for Manayunk Timber, the city’s only operating sawmill. The other, a simple yellow sign with black lettering, reads Umbria Arts.

“This is the first time that I have settled in my own space,” says Kwan Howard, the founder and curator of Umbria Arts. “This is the first full-blown commercial home.”

Opened in November, Howard created Umbria Arts for people interested in artistic movements and cultural preferences different from what he calls “the standard operating things.”

“I think this is a space that, if you want progressive and artfully designed items, even literature, and experiences, because we do events, I think this will feel like home to you,” said Howard, who is also co-founder and curator of Vicarious Love, a nomadic arts organization in the city. “I think this space speaks to that kind of desire.”

Yet for most of his 28 years living in the city, Northwest Philadelphia was as foreign to Howard as the Northwest Passage. Sure, he knew that Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown and Roxborough were sections of the city. He had even been to Manayunk a time or two.

But to Howard, those zip codes were too far removed from the city’s hubs of innovative art and culture and his audience in Old City, Fishtown, Northern Liberties and Center City.

“I was like, I would never go to Manayunk because I was always about being in the center of the city,” he said.

Then Howard began to notice a shift in the city’s innovative art scene. What were once the epicenters for his pop-up markets, art collaborations, festivals and block parties, had become “shells” of what they used to be. Then a relationship with a Northern Liberties showroom turned sour.

“I went home complaining to my girlfriend,” he says. “Rebecca was like, ‘Why don’t you come out to the lumber yard and do it?’”

Several years earlier, Rebecca Ebner’s father, Steve Ebner, owner of Manayunk Timber, had offered Howard space “to activate your art thing” on the sawmill’s two-acre property. Howard declined.

Not this time.

“It just seemed more promising at this time,” he said. “But that’s how we got here.”

Howard’s “art thing” is housed in a 1980s-era, one-story office building positioned at the entrance of Ebner’s property in, technically, Roxborough. Stacks of felled trees and logs strewn about the grounds, along with the earthy aroma of fresh-cut wood, reminds visitors that it’s also home to the city’s only operating saw mill.

“The lumber yard is really the perfect soil and foundation for creating a really thoughtful and considered arts and cultural space,” Howard said. “There is a really good energy to kind of grow this art space. That was what I was looking at when I made the decision to come out here and build Umbria Arts.”

Converting the long dormant building into a multi-functional facility took almost a year. Howard first had to clean out a “hoarder’s paradise” of old tools and random junk. But he felt a connection between his work promoting avant-garde art and cultural projects and the industrial environment.

“I think this sector of arts and culture gravitates to the more industrial zones and is definitely the background that I have, that I get excited about,” he said. “When I see industrial, I think freedom.”

Howard and Rebecca, who share the same design aesthetic, worked together to reimagine the space. The result is an open, airy, welcoming space that feels cohesive.

“We’re a team,” said Rebecca, who works with her dad at the sawmill. “It’s fun to make pictures for the space and think about how things will be displayed. It’s definitely one big family vibe.”

On display at Umbria Arts are works from a local furniture maker, sculptures from New York artists, glasses from New Mexico, jackets from a Chinese designer, and lamps made by a recent Haverford College graduate.

Sandwiched between the gallery and sawmill is Dead Kings Bread bakery. The building also houses Tomorrow Today books and park bench coffee roasters, both run by Howard’s friend Brendan Maher. In partnership with Howard, West Philadelphia’s Two Locals Brewing will open a taproom at the art center in the fall.

Commercial success is important to Howard. He wants Umbria to hold pop-up markets, art collaborations and fashion shows, the things he has done successfully for years. But he also wants it to become a destination, a place for events and community gatherings.

“In order for this space to be successful for me, we have to really be able to cultivate amazing experiences, gatherings, and events,” he said.

That already seems to be happening. Umbria has hosted two 70th birthday parties with 100 guests, a 90-person dinner with a custom-made table, a wine tasting, a book release, a poetry reading and experimental music shows.

Sitting back and reflecting for a moment, Howard retracts his early definition of his audience being people willing to travel from Center City for an edgy art and cultural experience.

“The more I think about it, the better question is, who is our community?” he says. “Our customer is our community and I think that it seems like what we are building here is a community.”