A year ago, they weren’t businesswomen. They came from disparate backgrounds, united by a passion for their art.

Sue Beck is a crafter of fine jewelry; Jan Lamoreaux, a painter of silk. Carol Mann and Jerry Bradley are watercolorists and Doris Schneider sculpts, paints and writes.

They call themselves “the lemons,” for their venture, Lemonade Art Gallery and Gifts, an adventure that started when their previous studio/gallery space in the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center was foreclosed upon in 2014.

Their new creative home is on a much smaller scale than the Inner Banks Artisans’ Center. In lieu of space, they’ve achieved something larger: community.

In the past year, these artists have forged connections with a greater community of visitors walking in off the street and with one another.

“It’s become intimate — I have more one-on-one with my students. … They stop in to talk to me about their work,” Mann said. “We’re less business and more of a family.”

They’ve also forged the gap between art and business by discovering their respective niches.

“We all bring something different to the table,” Mann said. “We each have a history that helps us do things here. I think we’ve got a good balance.”

For Mann, that’s a background in public relations. Bradley is the organizer and Beck has become the technical expert. Lamoreaux has excelled at staging windows, enticing passersby to stop in, and graphic design is Schneider’s forte.

“We didn’t even realize, until we started doing different things and we’re like, ‘Hey, she’s good at that!’” Bradley laughed.

The move across West Main Street and up the block from Inner Banks Artisans’ Center’s former location has made more of an impact than a simple change in address: it’s changed these artists’ work and how they work.

“We work more. We’re in the studio more,” Bradley said.

Mann is now teaching four watercolor classes of 14 students a week, along with another four private students. She said in order to be an effective teacher, she’s taking more classes and challenging herself, too.

“I have to be on top of things. I think my art is getting better because of my teaching,” Mann said.

Schneider said she’s creating more, and selling more, of her soft-sculpture masks, but as owners of the gallery, she and the others are more invested in store sales, rather than individual sales.

“Now we are busy not just selling our work, but others’ work,” Schneider said.

While Lemonade has brought these five artists closer, both professionally and personally, Bradley said their formula for the past year’s success is quite simple: teamwork and respect for one another.