Gallery walk helps young artists shine
On April 12 from 6-9 p.m., local businesses and galleries stayed open a bit longer than usual for the Logan Gallery Walk. The venues displayed artwork from local artists to the public free of charge as a way to promote local businesses and art produced here in Cache Valley.
Amanda Castillo and Andrea DeHaan both work for the Cache Valley Center for the Arts and are the organizers and promoters of the bi-monthly event.
DeHaan has a degree in education, but when she moved to Logan she wanted an office job that would allow her to coordinate between arts and education.
“I moved here from a much bigger place, Miami, Fla. I was used to an art scene that drives an entire neighborhood,” she said. “What’s nice about a town like Logan is that it’s fairly easy to find those avenues directly to local businesses which are participating in the gallery walk.”
Castillo went to school in Logan, got a part time job with CVCA nine years ago and has been working there ever since.
“This is a great way for students and the rest of the town to come and support local artists and the community,” Castillo said.
CVCA has been in charge of the gallery walk since 2010 and has changed a few things since the event began.
“I’m glad I get to be a part of something that adds to the vibrancy of downtown. Since we started the gallery walks in 2010, it’s been nice to broaden our offerings and be a part of the community,” Castillo said.
DeHann said the event brings together a lot of smaller galleries that could be overlooked.
“Because we’re a small town, we only have a handful of places that class themselves as full-time galleries,” she said. “The other places are local businesses that open their doors for the purpose of the gallery walk.”
DeHaan said businesses had an increase in revenue due to the gallery walk held in February right before Valentine’s Day.
“Andrea and I have made a lot of changes together. We’ve tried to make it greater, something that people can plan for,” Castillo said. “We’ve definitely improved the walk. We’re able to provide the materials and establish some regularity to it.”
CVCA has been trying a new scheduling format as of February, holding gallery walks on the second Friday of every other month.
“Amanda and I agreed that it would help the public and our vendors to have it on a more regular schedule,” DeHaan said. “It’s been hard to measure yet if it’s made a difference yet in 2013 because it snowed during the February walk.”
Castillo said the consistency of the new scheduling benefitted the venues, the artists and the public.
“The regularity of it enhances the artists’ ability to plan for it because it’s not cheap to put on a show,” she said.
When asked about the recent feedback from the revamped schedule, DeHaan said the positives outweighed the negatives.
“There will always be people who complain about the weather or say, ‘There’s a football game that night,'” she said. “We really do try to place it away from as many events as we could, but on the whole, a lot of the commentary we’ve heard has been positive.”
She said almost all the businesses appreciated that they could plan for the event to occur regularly in the future.
Castillo said the walks also improved the exposure of downtown businesses to students.
“I think that downtown struggles to draw students, unless you’re going to a restaurant,” she said. “There’s maybe a handful of places open after 6 p.m.”
Castillo said the close proximity of the galleries and businesses participating also helped draw people in.
“The nice thing about our walk is we have a few clusters, so if you’re only interested in going to a few places you can do that, it really tailors to anyone’s particular taste,” she said.
Local artists such as Laura Wyatt said they enjoy the event because of how easy it is to participate and to show their work.
Wyatt is one of the artists who had work on display during the April gallery walk. Her work was displayed at The Sportsman on Main Street. She studied art and textiles at Snow College. When asked about her view on the walks, she talked about the perks of the event and how easy it was to participate.
“I called the CVCA and they told me to contact individual vendors and see if they had an artist scheduled for the Walks yet,” she said. “It’s fun to display them. I’m loving all of the compliments.”
Wyatt said the exposure is good for her work, and she will definitely be participating in the future.
Both DeHaan and Castillo said there were great ways for students to get involved, either by helping at CVCA or participation in the event.
“If students are artists and interested in participating, they can contact Amanda or I directly,” said DeHaan. “We usually ask about the media they’re working in and the size and dimension of the work so we can set them up with an appropriate venue.”
Castillo said CVCA is looking for interns who enjoy the arts and want to help promote and encourage them in the community.
The next gallery walk is scheduled for Friday, June 14.
– derrick.saunders91@aggiemail.usu.edu