![]() “Its history is a part of the rich fabric of our community.” “I totally appreciate the life of Chimera,” she says. 7 (visit for details).įormer members have shown work in the gallery throughout the anniversary year, including Maresten who brought in new paintings this spring. Seventy-two strips of paper dangle from a beam like a paper wind chime, each with the name of a current or past cooperative member a four-foot long chart lists more detail about their years of participation. Step inside the gallery today and you’ll see work in a variety of media by the 22 members: paintings, original prints, hand-forged steel, glass, wood, fiber, paper, photography, jewelry, and clay. “There are so many customers who say it makes them feel good to come in and to see how people’s art is developing,” she said. “We have to make money to pay the bills, but any small business in a community like this is also a community service.”Įven as she scrutinizes the monthly financial reports, Bronstein acknowledges other returns on the cooperative’s efforts. “We do get too focused sometimes on the business aspect,” says Maxine Bronstein, board chair and fiber artist. ![]() Other newcomers such as potter Lydia Lukahnovich, painter and printmaker Sheila Simpson-Creps, studio jeweler Tina Finneran, and botanical artist Linda Ann Vorobik developed a schedule of monthly art openings, a website, an annual silent auction, and a student art show and scholarship fund. Gerry Gildea, a building contractor who also turns wood into bowls and spinning tops, sharpened his fellow artists’ skills at analyzing expenses and revenues. Part of the co-op’s key to success is its good fortune to pull in the right people at the right time. There were murmurings of closing the doors. One of his early gallery notes suggests working there wasn’t all serious, though: “I played music with a Friday afternoon mainland tourist guy.”īy the time the cooperative approached its 10th year, several of the original members had moved on, and enthusiasm (and sales) waned. Imagine trying to cash a standing ovation.”įor potter and founding member Jeffrey Hanks, joining the cooperative helped him view himself more seriously as an artist. A leaf through the pages reveals this appraisal: “Soooo many people are here now, browse, browse, browse. Since the beginning, members have jotted notes in a journal during their shifts staffing the gallery, an 800-square-foot storefront just two doors from Holly B’s Bakery in Lopez Village. Now an elected group of five oversees day-to-day operations and juries in new work, and a written contract delineates membership responsibilities and benefits. Any artist who was willing to staff the gallery could join. There was no board of directors, and policies and procedures were fluid. Maresten and Bingham recall that in those early days, gallery operations were, well, “of mixed character.” Members met often, and whoever showed up set the agenda and figured out who would facilitate and who would take minutes. ![]() Her linoleum block print – a fanciful griffin with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and long, curving tail – symbolizes the diversity of artists and personalities from the cooperative’s beginning through the present. “All these different people who had different ideas and different ways of doing things.”ĭiana Bower, creator of the gallery’s logo, was among the founders and remains active today. “This is exactly how it started,” Bingham says. Patrons still stumble over the word, even with the pronunciation guide on the cooperative’s business card (ki-meer-a) and definition (a thing of mixed character). “Nobody could pronounce Chimera,” Bingham says Maresten, who’s credited with the moniker, recalls it barely got majority approval.
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