Retirees make an impact while pursuing their passions

Follow your dreams to the Dream Depot

  • When Michelle Lustenberg is not creating or building something, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren Lincoln and Archer.
    When Michelle Lustenberg is not creating or building something, she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren Lincoln and Archer.
  • Lustenberg plans to continue providing paint parties for friends and organizations, and her Dream Depot will now offer community instruction in areas she provided her gifted students when she taught, such as claymation and crime scene investigation.
    Lustenberg plans to continue providing paint parties for friends and organizations, and her Dream Depot will now offer community instruction in areas she provided her gifted students when she taught, such as claymation and crime scene investigation.

By Nila Harris

Before Michelle Lustenberg retired, she began thinking of what she hoped to do AFTER she retired. One thing for certain, she knew she was going to need some kind of “teaching fix”. She started giving art lessons during Covid, but this proved difficult to do during the school year, because she was so busy. Then one of Lustenberg’s students suggested, “Why don’t you do what you do here?” Thus, started the idea of the Dream Depot—a place where she could host paint parties, workshops, hold private or group art lessons and more. “My problem is, I have so many ideas, so much I want to do, it’s hard to stop,” admits Lustenberg.

The Dream Depot is located at 149 South Main Street in Dry Ridge, in the old IGA building near the railroad tracks. Lustenberg is in the process of a mass overhaul of the 2,500 square foot space to include a darkroom, editing space, and a loft. Weekend workshops on archeology, black and white photo processing, and claymation are being lined up as future events. There will be to a DIY space and plans are in the works for a Discover Pals program where you make things with a partner (mom/daughter; grandparent/grandchild, etc). Project birthday parties, and paint parties are also in the lineup of activities.

Currently, Lustenberg is giving private art lessons, leading paint parties, and presenting workshops at local schools. In the future, she anticipates bringing school groups to her Dry Ridge studio. “I’m a firm believer that learning is fun.”

The Dream Depot will be opening to the public in January or February. If you’re interested in lessons, a paint party, or something else Lustenberg has to offer, you may contact her on Facebook at The Dream Depot, where you may also follow the studio progress.