The empty storefront in the breezeway of Santa Maria’s Town Center West has potential. Lots of windows make for plenty of natural lighting. The white walls stand tall and barren, devoid of even a drop of color. It’s all a big blank.
To the artists at the Town Center Gallery, no gallery space has ever looked more attractive.
The Town Center Gallery, which has been homeless for a year, will officially open in the space with a reception on July 17. That date hasn’t stopped the artists from getting back to business in the meantime. Children’s art classes will begin June 22, and as soon as members determine they have enough artists ready to display, they’ll open their doors.
The gallery is a cooperative staffed by member associate artists. It’s had a presence in the community since 1983 when it opened as the Visual Arts Gallery under the direction of the Parks and Recreation Department at the Veterans Memorial Culture Center. A year later, the gallery grew and was renamed the Culture Corner Gallery. Another need for expansion resulted in the gallery relocating to Santa Maria Town Center East—the mall—and incorporating as a nonprofit in 2006.
A year ago, the mall owners decided to remodel. Many of the mall’s tenants were displaced—including the Town Center Gallery. The group’s leaders, working with a nonprofit with a small budget, struggled to find a lease similar to the one they had at the mall, which was rent-free. Stoddard spent the last year calling locations, trying to find something they could afford, and eventually found the space at Town Center West.
“I’m kind of excited,” Stoddard said. “I think it will look good.”
Bill McDaniel helped the gallery wade through pages of lease documents. McDaniel creates penguins that were featured at the gallery’s former location, as well as handcrafted jewelry. He said one of the benefits of the new space is that the gallery won’t be restricted in the lease as it was at the old location—thus, the gallery will feature jewelry along with its object and wall art.
McDaniel noted the site is smaller than the former location, but will work.
“I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “We worked really hard to get this.”
Stoddard and McDaniel have been busy readying the gallery, buying pedestals at department store liquidation sales, cleaning, and arranging. Stoddard spent a recent afternoon in the empty space, simply cleaning and envisioning.
“Here’s where our computer will go, and here’s where we’ll have some jewelry, and here’s where we’ll have the art classes for kids,” she said, pointing to a nook in the far corner of the space.
Beth Ostapiuk will teach those classes to children interested in learning about art in clay, watercolor, color pencil, silk paint, and acrylics. The classes run in three-day sessions for two hours each session. A grant from Altrusa made the summer classes possible. Ostapiuk taught the classes at the gallery when it was in the mall. Though gallery directors were able to find alternate places to locate members’ artwork when they lost the mall space, finding a location for the art classes was more difficult. Ostapiuk, then, is excited about the new location.
“It’s been real positive. It’s really good to be up and running again in the community,” she said. “And now I can start up the art classes again.”
The gallery isn’t wasting any time starting up its show, either. For its first featured exhibit at the new location, the Town Center Gallery will highlight its two recent scholarship winners. Michelle Kohler of Grover Beach and Kimberly Saylor of Guadalupe are Allan Hancock College students who recently won the gallery’s scholarship award of $100 apiece, to be put toward pursuing their arts education. The girls were nominated by a committee at the college.
The July 17 reception to open the show is something new to the gallery as well. Under its prior lease, the gallery wasn’t able to host receptions. Now, gallery directors are planning the layout to accommodate such events.
In fact, the experience has been such a positive one, gallery members don’t seem to mind putting in a little elbow grease to make sure things are running smoothly.
“It’s a little bit of work at first, getting it all set up, but we’re getting it little by little,” Ostapiuk said.
Arts Editor Shelly Cone likes a little spit and polish on her stories. She can be contacted at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 18-25, 2009.
