A
younger artist friend from back home asked about recommendations for the small
or rural art gallery. It is a difficult question to answer. I have worked with numerous projects that
denote, list and explore galleries as cultural assets in terms of tourism and
media, but most often, the smaller gallery and the rural gallery seem to act as
a local arts incubator, a social outreach or an artisanal display more than
they do a true arts center.
As I am trying to consistently reinforce,
there is nothing wrong with the artisanal center or promotional gallery and as
such, I can only recommend a strong relationship be established between the
local arts community, the chamber of commerce and the local technical schools
and all efforts be made to market! Market!, Market!
On the other hand, just as a small ethnic
or rural community requires a church, mosque or religious center, each should have
a fine arts establishment – merely for the survival of the spiritually creative
soul.
The most common arts venue in smaller
communities seems to be the theatre – Ft Peck Theatre near Glasgow, Montana, Commonweal
Theatre, in Lanesboro, Minnesota, the old Baliwick Theatre in Chicago, and the
Minnesota Historical Theatre in St Paul,
and numerous other examples indicate how smaller theatres have become
essential venues for the arts. My observation
is that the strongest of these theatres also seem to have tendency to include
both locally reflective material and one or two more challenging or experimental
pieces, along with the traditional performances of traditional favorites such
as the Sound of Music, Death of a Salesman, etc. While popular films such as Please Don’t Eat the Daisies andWaiting for Guffman tend to disparage
small-community efforts in this regard, I often find smaller, more local,
more-budget-conscious productions to be more intimate, more approachable, often
more creative, and just as interesting as Chicago’s Wolf Trap or Minneapolis’
Guthrie. What are the popular Fringe
Festivals if not groupings of the smaller theatrical and cabaret-style theatre
experience?
Art galleries that seem to do “small” well
are Klondike Institute of Art & Culture in Dawson City, Yukon, the original
Plug-In Gallery (now a greatly expanded enterprise) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Chateau
Park Museum – Art Centre in St Catharines, Ontario, Hamond Arts Alliance in Hammond,
Wisconsin, the Swedish-American Museum (SAMAC) in Chicago, Dana Gallery in
Missoula, Montana, and the arts pavilion at Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town,
South Africa.
