Downtown Director of the City of La Porte, Thaddeus Cutler is much more than meets the eye. Cutler is a La Porte native who works to coordinate and organize local events for the city to promote and revitalize the Downtown area. He is also a very impressive artist.
Cutler was born and raised in La Porte and graduated from La Porte High School. He went off to college looking to obtain what many would call a “useful” degree. Something that people told him would get him a job while still working in a creative field.
Within weeks, he soon realized that what he wanted to do was right in front of him. His passion for painting and art was so strong and relevant in his life, he had no idea how he had missed it at first.
“There’s a specific moment that it kind of all came crashing down. I walked into my dorm room. And I don’t know, it was no different than any other day walking into my dorm room. But for some reason my eyes were very open or I was seeing it all like clearly.” he said.
“I had noticed that in the loft that I slept in, I had painted every column in the loft, I had painted a mural on the wall, I had drawings and paintings tacked up everywhere. And all of a sudden I went ‘What the heck am I doing? Obviously, this is what I love. It’s all over everywhere. It’s all over my life!’”
That day was the beginning for Cutler. He decided to leave Ball State and headed to Indiana University South Bend where he went after his dream with a degree in Fine Art.
Cutler’s art mainly focuses on oil painting and drawing, creating still lifes, portraits and landscapes with influence from representational painters.
“I tend to gravitate towards humor, there’s always like a subtle- it’s like a tongue and cheek humor, most of my work. It’s not to be taken too seriously,” said Cutler as he gestured toward a very fine detailed yet simple, oil painting of a banana with a white background in his office.
After graduation, Cutler spent 6 years in New York where he attended New York Academy of Art for his masters degree, met his wife Laura and managed a local art gallery.
When he brought Laura back to La Porte for visits, she instantly fell in love with the city. She was overwhelmed with the sense of community and all the potential the city had.
In the end, they decided to purchase a house in La Porte while still living in New York. When the gallery Cutler worked at closed, they decided to come back to live in their new home for just the summer and afterwards they would head back to New York to start over again. Well summer turned into fall and 12 years later he’s still here.
Within a couple years of being back in La Porte, Cutler decided to open up a small art gallery after noticing there weren’t any in the area. “It was a blank canvas. We could literally do anything we want, because no one had seen anything like it before.” said Cutler.
The gallery started in a small space that was around 600 square feet on a 2nd floor. After a couple of years, the community had fully embraced the Thaddeus C. Gallery. On the nights of gallery openings, 200-400 people would come through during the few hours the event was open. With so many people coming in, they weren’t all fitting, so it was decided in 2007 that it was time for a new place.
The new and current location is now in the middle of Downtown LaPorte and is around 2000 square feet on the ground floor.
After moving to Laporte, Cutler and his wife, Laura became very involved in the Downtown area, helping with events and even creating them. Laura Cutler is actually the one who created the 2nd Saturdays events that were previously held in La Porte’s Downtown area in the past, where shops, restaurants, galleries and more, stayed open later during the summer for everyone to enjoy.
When the Downtown Director position became available, the predecessor recommended that Cutler apply. After deciding that this was his chance to make a change for the Downtown area, he applied and has held the position for about 2 and a half years now.
“It’s been really good. I felt really positive about the changes we’ve been able to bring. The city, they all embraced me.”
With so many changes happening, Cutler says now is no better time to be in the position.“It’s kind of an exciting time to be in the position I’m in, to see all the wonderful changes that are happening. I mean, the whole mood has been a dramatic change. From when I first moved back in 2004, it’s been, over those 12 years it’s been very different.”
One of the many events coming up that Cutler has been planning that he is particularly excited for is the 5th Annual Taste of La Porte on July 30 from 3:00 to 9:00 pm. Restaurants from all over the county will be showing off their most delicious menu items, along with lots of great bands all night long and even a kids village.
Cutler also wants to remind everyone that you can still order a plaza brick to be on display in the new La Porte City plaza from now until July 11 for it to be installed during the inaugural year. The brick is $100 and includes 3 lines with 18 characters per line. All are welcome to purchse a brick and display messages, special dates, accolades or memorials. Orders can be made here.
Even with all demands of his job that come with planning and coordinating events that help the Downtown area in so many ways, Cutler never forgets one thing. “First and foremost, I’m a painter. I mean, that’s who I am. And then everything kind of falls into place after that.”
Cutler says that one of his greatest assets as a person is his artistic side and he’s grateful that he gets to use so much of his talent to help build up the Downtown. Cutler gets to design all the downtown event t-shirts and all the promotional materials used. Being able to create everything himself, he said really helps his budget go much farther. “I like having creative control. I like to call the shots. I like to pick the colors. I like to do all of that.“
Cutler often participates in high school and middle school job fairs to help disprove the popular belief that going into art is a dead end. He likes to show students that they can be like him one day: a very successful artist. Someone who went to art school, then became a gallery manager and then finally is revitalizing the LaPorte Downtown area, running his own gallery and doing as much art in his free time as he wants.
Cutler thought back on how his wife “answered the calling” to go to art school later on in life. “I always tell people, if you’re young, aspiring, even people who develop art later as a hobby, you know, art is a very valid thing. And if you decide to get into it later, there’s really no time limit. There never has been.”
Thaddeus Cutler is an inspiration to anyone struggling to choose their passion over more “acceptable” paths in life. His advice?
“If you have a desire to do it, whether you want to do it in school or not, I suggest you do it.”