It’s a modest space, a basement area that’s right next door to one of Northampton’s busiest art centers, the A.P.E. Gallery, and just another door down from an even larger arts space, R. Michelson Galleries.

But Rhynia, a new arts and event space in the city, is looking to become a regular venue for the community, especially for women and non-binary artists, as well as for people looking “to build roots here,” as one organizer puts it.

Located at 122 Main St., Rhynia is a nonprofit founded by Lindsey Matarazzo, a Belchertown resident who was inspired to create the space after traveling to southern India in 2020 and spending time with a women’s group called the Auroshakti. That’s a cooperative organization dedicated to mutual support, community needs, and women’s empowerment, with members from a wide range of ages and backgrounds.

Three years later, Matarazzo and some of her friends, family, and a group of volunteers have opened Rhynia, which features monthly art exhibits, an open mic, and a range of other events and workshops, from bookmaking classes to poetry readings to book discussions to a wreath-making session.

This month the space is hosting work by Easthampton artist Amanda Barrow, a painter and printmaker who, by coincidence, has made numerous trips to India — and whose latest work is inspired in part by that experience.

Rhynia is the name of a plant that existed over 300 million years ago, and, as it “provided clues to the probable evolutionary pathways that gave rise to modern plants,” as the organization’s website puts it, it seemed a good name for a new community space looking to sink roots in the Valley.

Matarazzo has been traveling of late and wasn’t available for comment. But her mother, Christina Broderick, also of Belchertown, said she and her daughter both traveled in 2019 to a community in southern India as part of a trip run through an Amherst yoga studio where they took classes.

In the Indian community, called Auroville, they observed ways local women helped each other professionally and personally while also addressing community concerns, such as a need to develop a preschool.

“We were really taken by the way they supported one another and worked collaboratively,” said Broderick. “They were saying ‘What’s out there? What are the needs? What can we do?’”

After her daughter returned to the same community in 2020, “Lindsey came back and wanted to see how she could create something like that here,” Broderick said.

The nonprofit “is still in the beginning stages,” said Broderick, who serves on Rhynia’s board of directors. “We’re still learning and finding our way. But our hope is this can be a real gathering space for the community.”

‘My ears perked up’

Barrow, who works out of Cottage Street Studios in Easthampton, said she learned some months back about Rhynia from a student in a printmaking class she teaches. Like any artist, she noted, she was intrigued to learn of a new gallery space “but my ears really perked up when I learned about its connection to India.”

Barrow explains that she first visited India in 1986 as part of trekking trip that began in Nepal, then spent 13 months in India in 1992 as a Fulbright scholar, developing an edition of small books. She’s been back numerous times since then to teach, do research, and to travel, including in the area of southern India that Matarazzo visited.

She was part of a few previous group exhibits at Rhynia, and this month is a featured solo artist. Her exhibit, “The Asian Wall Series,” features collage paintings inspired by her visits to India, and by a trip she made to China in 1999. Her work incorporates scrap paper and textiles from India as well as fabric from her mother’s quilting collection.

Barrow has also integrated script from the South Indian state of Kerala in her paintings, spelling out short words such as “eye,” “bird,” “monkey” and “elephant.” And some paintings reflect what she saw on walls in China — posters, paint, graffiti, advertisements and more — prompting her to “synthesize the abstract language” of her impressions.

“And it seems only fitting that these paintings are now mounted on a brick wall in Rhynia,” she said with a laugh, noting that all work in the space is mounted on that wall.

“It’s a small space but it feels really nice, really self-contained,” Barrow added.

Tonya Ramos, a printmaker who runs Blazing Star Herbal School in Ashfield, schedules the art exhibits at Rhynia. She says she initially got to know Matarazzo when the latter took classes with her at the school, which offers studies on herbal medicine and related subjects.

When she learned of her friend’s interest in starting Rhynia, Ramos said, “I wanted to help out, and I thought hosting exhibits would be one way of building community there … I want to bring artists together.”

Rhynia is aimed first at helping female and non-binary artists find a space to show their work, Ramos said, as well as providing a space in which women can come together. But “it’s open to anyone who wants to have a class or host an event,” she added. “People of all genders can be there.”

The 11 people currently associated with it — five members of the board of directors, including a treasurer, and six others who like Ramos schedule and staff events — are all volunteering their time, Ramos and Broderick said.

“Everyone has their daytime job or other life,” said Ramos. (Matarazzo and her husband own and manage some properties in the area, Broderick said.)

But both Ramos and Broderick say the group’s hope is eventually to qualify for grant funding and create a regular budget that could allow them to hire some part-time staff and expand operating hours at Rhynia.

The space is located in the basement of the building that houses Pinocchio Pizza, Broderick says, which is owned by her daughter’s father-in-law.

“We’re not that visible, although we’ve been getting good visitation on (Northampton’s) Arts Night Out,” she said. “We’re trying to think of ways to be more in public view.”

For her part, Barrow was at Rhynia for Arts Night Out on Nov. 10 and on Nov. 14 in the afternoon. Her work can also be viewed Nov. 18 from 2 to 6 p.m. and Nov. 29 from 2 to 5 p.m.

In addition, her husband, Carl Clements, will perform North Indian Classical music on the bansuri flute Nov. 18 from 4 to 5 p.m. at the space, and Barrow will lead a Gel Plate and Akua Inks printmaking workshop there Nov. 26 from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

“It’s always exciting to discover a new space where you can show art and have other events.” said Barrow. “I hope Rhynia can build on what they’ve started.”

To contact the nonprofit group, visit rhyniainc.com.

Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.