Artwork covers the walls, frequently shifting from acrylic paintings of windmills to vintage photos of doors, then to rusted gears. The only feature remaining constant is the sweet smell of espresso drawing a wide array of personalities through the door.

The Paper Crane, an art and coffee shop, was opened two years ago across the street from the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum with the intention of creating a stepping stone for younger artists studying at West Texas A&M University.

“The Paper Crane offers a really relaxed place to come and be inspired by the artwork or get coffee,” manager Jesse Melson said. “My inspiration was to give younger artists the chance to show their stuff. A lot of times, you don’t get to show until your senior year of college or you’re already a professional artist.”

The Paper Crane has hosted a variety of events, including art shows, poetry readings and live music nights. Melson said he plans to start a music night this summer, called “Summer Nights.”

“I’m going to try to make it to where every Thursday night we’re going to cover a different genre each week,” Melson said. “One week, there might be a quartet, like a string quartet, playing classical music and the next week it might be jazz.”

In addition to the art shows, The Paper Crane offers coffee, snow cones and other popular beverages.

“Primarily, we are an art gallery,” Melson said. “We offer art lessons, paint parties, or summer camps and then coffee is more of a secondary thing. But I think they go hand and hand really well together.”

A variety of baristas work at The Paper Crane, including English majors, communications majors and a girl who does barrel racing on the weekends.

“We try to appeal to everybody, not just people who know coffee and art,” Melson said. “We’re trying to make the arts approachable. My dad never knew anything about coffee until we started doing this, just because he never wanted to go into a coffee shop. I would like for The Paper Crane to stay around for a while and be a local hot spot for inspiration.”