Fayetteville Underground to unveil new gallery at Aug. 2 First Thursday event
Fayetteville Underground artists will unveil their new gallery space inside the GCM Building during First Thursday on Aug. 2.
Photo: Todd Gill, Fayetteville Flyer
The monthly First Thursday art walks on the Fayetteville square are always a good time, but as some have probably noticed, something has been missing from the events this season.
Artist Sabine Schmidt leads a tour of an available artist studio inside the new space.
Photo: Dustin Bartholomew
Fayetteville Underground artists lost their lease last year on the basement space they occupied on the downtown square, leaving the group who helped found First Thursday without an exhibition space during the monthly event.
That will change next month when the group holds its first show at the new Fayetteville Underground gallery and studio space at 101 W. Mountain St. on the southwest corner of the square.
“We’re so glad to be back,” said Fayetteville Underground artist Sabine Schmidt. “This show will be a ‘sneak peek’ show, and all of the member artists will exhibit work. Then we plan to have our grand opening in September.”
The new space is made possible in large part by a $55,000 award the group received from the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission earlier this year.
“We need them back here,” said A&P commissioner Bob Davis. “I think it’s vital to the city of Fayetteville, especially on Thursday nights.”
The space’s largest gallery can also serve as a meeting room for the group’s board of directors.
Photo: Dustin Bartholomew
Artist Hank Kaminsky said the artists are extremely grateful for the A&P funds, and have done much of the renovations on the new space themselves.
“We talked about hiring an architect, and getting some help to do all this, but we decided we wanted to make that money stretch as far we can,” he said.
Schmidt said that Kaminsky, along with artists Jan Gosnell, William Mayes Flannigan, and others have logged hundreds of hours working on the new space.
The new Fayetteville Underground will be smaller than the area it occupied inside East Square Plaza, but will still house four exhibition spaces, 10 artist studios, as well as office space for the organization.
In addition to the new space, Schmidt said that the organization has a new board of directors in place, and will debut some new ways for the public to support the gallery.
“We’re going to have artist members of the Underground like before, but for the first time ever, we’re going to have public members as well,” she said. “The membership fees are $25 a year, and members will see several benefits such as early access to shows.”
Schmidt said more information about the new programs and memberships will be available at the Aug. 2 show.
The “sneak peek” show will feature a variety of paintings, sculpture, photography, pottery, jewelry, and other arts and crafts from Fayetteville Underground resident artists. Those artists include Cheri Bohn, William Mayes Flanagan, Jan Gosnell, Mike Haley, Susy Siegele, Don House, Becky Johnson, Hank Kaminsky, M.M. Kent, Sharon Killian, Martha Molina, Doug Randall, Sheila Richards, Sabine Schmidt, John Sewell, and others.
“This is going to give us an opportunity to see how things go, and how the new space works,” said Schmidt. “We’re excited to work out the kinks, and to get ready for our grand opening in September.”
They have done a great job. I’ve been in there a couple of times and it looks even better that I thought it could.
Maybe the A&P could look at buying that building as a permanent home for the Underground. It is certainly big enough. and they already have $60,000 invested. Perhaps there is matching grant money somewhere?
Good idea. They did such a good job negotiating to buy the last building.
As happy as I am that they have a new location, and have found a space, maybe we should let them get a few feathers in their cap, and prove that they are self sustainable, before we start talking about spending city tax dollars and buying a building for them. They have a lot of growing to do, as a business and as a community non-profit, before I’m sold on the idea that they should be funded by tax dollars. There are many arts groups that are equally , if not more deserving of a permanent home. (theater Squared, artist laboratory theater, GoodFolk productions, to name a few). If A&P is investing in buying a building (which they’re not, I don’t think), it’d better be a multi-use facility, for all types of arts groups. Underground shouldn’t get preferential treatment.