EXPANDING ON HISTORY

Mattie Rhodes Celebrates Many Anniversaries / 
Art Space Expansion Part of Future

KC Studio, July - August 2009

Mattie Rhodes Center staff will mark two anniversaries this year - 115 years as an agency that aids families in need and 10 years for the art gallery.  And as with agencies centered on people, the developing, ever evolving center has added a space at the pARTnership Space at 9th and Grand to hold the Hand-in-Hand Folk Art Collection this spring.

Art Gallery & Programs

The Mattie Rhodes Art Center opened in the late 1980s, followed by the Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery on 17th Street in 1999.  Local artist and arts educator Jenny Mendez founded the gallery 10 years ago.  "As far as the history of galleries, 10 years in a nice milestone.  Being a community arts gallery, 10 years is even more unique.  We knew we would be opening something distinctive.  We reached out to local Latino artists and now we have even had international artists in the gallery."

Another local artist and arts education Alisha Gambino teaches classes and helps in the gallery.  She just completed the spring semester at James Elementary, leading a cultural arts exploration where visual arts and performing is meshed with traditional core classes.  Gambino says they will track test scores and grades.  Mendez also spent the spring semester at East High School, working with the Hispanic leadership group on a mural.  "The center's after-school program averages about 100 students and they connect with teachers and the space.  We are continuing the traditions of Mattie Rhodes, but we pay attention to the opportunities that knock every day," Mendez says.

New Space at 9th and Grand

Latino Cultural Arts Division Director Consuelo Cruz and Gallery Curator Erin Beier are glad to move the Hand-in-Hand Folk Art Collection out of storage and into exhibit/storage space.  The collection comes from Alice Ann Biggerstaff, a retired Hallmark artist who collected folk art in Latin America and Hispanic and Pueblo Indian artists of the Southwest.  In March 2007, the collection was formally gifted to Mattie Rhodes Center.  "We want to take this folk art, the art of everyday people, and make it more accessible," Cruz says.

Beier says the space will be buzzing by early 2010, but many Mattie Rhodes Center art supporters and friends will get to see the new space Aug. 26.  Cruz says the arts division will benefit from the evening.  "With this new location, we are going to be attracting more adults from those visiting the Power and Light District and other downtown businesses."

Beier will spend the summer cataloguing the collection, which has grown to more than 1,500 pieces.  "We need to catalog these pieces so people like art teachers can use the collection," she says.

http://en.calameo.com/read/0000092569f2780275a1b - page 26-27