Spring Art Walk: Rutland Celebrates its Art Friday

Published in the Rutland Herald | Story by Jim Lowe | April 28, 2018

RUTLAND — Art Is Vital, Downtown Rutland is collaborating with local art spaces to increase access to the arts as the city celebrates spring finally arriving with a Spring Art Walk 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 4.

Participating are 77 Gallery, Opera House Gallery, City Hall, Castleton University Bank Gallery, the Alley Gallery, TimCo Art Gallery and Chaffee Art Center.

Each gallery space will be open to the public to peruse, and visitors are encouraged to join the guided tour at 6 p.m. Oliver B. Schemm, assistant professor of art of Castleton University, will be “the tour guide in the top hat,” and will be departing at 6 p.m. from the Castleton University Bank Gallery on the corner of Merchants Row and Center Street.

Schemm will not only be making tour stops at art venues, but also at murals and sculptures along the way. The tour will last just over one hour if you can tear yourself away from one gallery’s show to see another.

And that’s definitely more of a challenge than it sounds. Each venue has quite the thought-provoking show. At the Castleton University Bank Gallery, Nina Dubois will be hosting her solo exhibition’s reception 6 to 8 p.m. The show, “Hold Me, Pet Me, I’m Crying About Something,” runs through June 9, and is described as having dada art characteristics.

It will also be visitors’ last chance to see Kate Longmaid’s excellent human rights-themed oil painting exhibition, “Hear Our Voice,” at The Alley Gallery. Longmaid’s show opened up March 8 and will have its closing reception with the artist in house for any burning questions.

At 77 Gallery, just a 5-minute walk along Grove Street out of downtown, Whitney Ramage has curated the current contemporary exhibition, “Mass — Matter,” which opened to the public April 7. At 77, visitors will be stunned by the contemporary work from several former MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) artists in residence, including, Karen Y. Chan, Suzy Gonzalez, Yorgos Maraziotis, Amalya Meira, Jeremy Olson, John Richey, and Whitney Ramage. This show will be open for nearly five months but should be repeatedly seen and appreciated with time.

Also, on the night of May 4, the Chaffee Art Center is hosting the 2018 Annual Student Art Show 4 to 8 p.m., which runs through June 2. After or before one takes the downtown art tour at 6 p.m., art lovers are encouraged to check out the student art show up the hill at 16 South Main St.

This collaborative event and night of art is free and open to the public.