If you’re passing by the corner of West Laurel Street and Holmes Avenue in Springfield, you might happen to notice what looks like a miniature house with windows and solar panels standing on a post in the yard of 1624 Holmes Ave. A closer look will reveal an intricate, dollhouse-like interior, designed to showcase tiny works of art which are mounted throughout the diminutive structure. A QR code on the support post will lead interested viewers to an Instagram account with information on Gallery 1624 as well as details about the works on display and their creators.
“As far as I know, this is the only mini-art gallery in downstate Illinois,” said Seth! Leary, the owner, operator and designer of Gallery 1624. He opened the tiny gallery on his front lawn in October of 2025.
“It has a footprint of about two square feet. I’ve tried to scale everything to make it proportionate,” he said. The design and color scheme of the gallery intentionally complements that of Leary’s home, and includes features such as actual tiny gutters and a little concrete stoop in front of the door, where a miniature jack-o-lantern resided for several weeks (miraculously unmolested) this past Halloween season. “It was a good opportunity to overthink a whole lot of things,” Leary said.
The idea for the gallery was inspired by Gallery 1619 in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago, which Leary had discovered via Instagram and subsequently visited.
Leary’s background makes him uniquely suited to running a tiny art gallery. A career in developing traveling exhibitions for museums and science centers (such as “Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing,” currently on display at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry) grew from his childhood experience as the son of Richard Leary, who was curator of geology at the Illinois State Museum for decades.
“I grew up behind the scenes of the museum, and I got to see the whole process of how exhibits were developed,” he said. “That always stuck in my head – I just thought, man, the storytelling of doing an exhibition is really cool.”
Leary also has a degree in art education and currently works as a substitute teacher in Springfield, in between managing touring exhibitions and maintaining his tiny art space. “The gallery doesn’t make any money,” he said wryly. “I mean, if all the joy that it brought to the world would pay the bills, then I’d be rich, rich, rich.”
Currently on display at 1624 is “Heart-Shaped World,” a solo exhibit by Kristan Kelly, a photographer based in southern Oregon. “I find the beauty in the small details, and capture the moments people experience,” she said in an artist statement. “A heart-shaped rock on the beach, a cloud drifting by over the mountains or even the simple curve of food on a plate. These small discoveries feel like reminders that love and connection are present everywhere if we take the time to look.”
“I would really like to get Springfield artists involved,” said Leary. “Either working in a group show with maybe a dozen or more people each contributing a little tiny piece to it – or if somebody has a body of tiny work and wants to do a solo show. I want to highlight local artists but also it’s super fun to bring in people from far away.”
Visit Gallery1624 on Instagram @gallery1624_springfield.
