Art in Downtown Manchester

[Irene Cole]

When I travel I like to see local art. I see local art because it's easy to find and in the downtown area of wherever I'm visiting. How can we get more of our local art downtown? I noticed in Belfast, Maine that there were quite a few galleries among the shops as well as public art on every corner in the form of fun and playful airplanes, bikes, benches that the kids could sit on and make move. A project like this would be fun. Would Manchester allow it? We now have Spiral Press that shows art, the other gallery on Main Street next to the Harvest Grill, Tilting at Windmills - am I missing anyplace else? There are quite a few empty retail spaces around town. Wouldn't it be great to cheaply rent the empty spaces until they are needed and show our art? It could be like a game - where's the art now? We could have a gallery walk night - maybe the art would be in the empty spaces for just that night. Manchester needs more art. People need to see more art. SVAC is great, but it's up on a hill, closes at 5, the Wilson building and the studios will now be closed all winter and frankly it's not convenient to get there when you only have a 1/2 hour in between errands. Any thoughts on any of this?

[Dan Fisher]

I think all of your ideas sound good. I once helped open a six space art show in a mini mall in LA. If was a complete circle for me since I had seen malls be developed and rob the downtowns of visitors. Artists would of course move into the empty downtown and eventually revitalize it. Just a matter of time before the process reversed itself. I have extensive experience in contracting skills if that can be helpful.

I quit my membership in SVAC when I realized that every piece of correspondence I had received for more than a year assumed I was made of money which I'm not. It seemed clear to me that the reality of my profile as an artist was not something they were familiar with or else just didn't care.

[Irene Cole]

i think it is still important to support SVAC partly because right now they are one of the only venues that it is possible to exhibit in pretty regularly if a member. SVAC has also brought some wonderful exhibits into town that would not have made it here otherwise. Yes, they are constantly asking for money, but if you don't have it, don't send it. An organization cannot run on air and every little bit helps - even a dollar. I still think there is tremendous room for improvement at SVAC, but the current personnel can only do so much and maybe if we all grouped together and voiced an opinion we could see what we want to happen. After all, the original SVAC was started by artist members.