Gallery showcases local art

All pho­tos on this page are by Randy Patrick, except the three indi­vid­ual art­work pho­tos at the bot­tom of the gallery, which are by Elizabeth Chalfant.

On a damp September morn­ing, Winchester’s Main Street is alive with vis­i­tors who have come for the Daniel Boone Pioneer Festival, and crafts­peo­ple have set up tents to dis­play every­thing from jew­el­ry to pottery.

At Jackie Crouch’s booth, Carolyn Wilkins is amused by some gourds that look like chick­ens, and she is show­ing them to her daugh­ters, Dawn Ohnheiser and Holly Shaver.

“This is by far one of the best fes­ti­vals around,” Ohnheiser says. “I’m from Winchester, so we do the Pioneer Festival every year.”

One thing that makes the fes­ti­val so suc­cess­ful is the Winchester Art Guild, which rents spaces to the arts and crafts ven­dors. Many of those ven­dors are guild mem­bers whose work is dis­played at its gallery, Arts on Main.

“A lot of them do this fes­ti­val because it’s local and they can use the store if they need to,” says Ken Howard, a pot­ter and the guild’s vice pres­i­dent. “We just cel­e­brat­ed four years at this location.”

Howard sells his work at fes­ti­vals through­out the year, but also sells it at the gallery year-round.

“Probably every­thing in there is under-priced,” Chalfant said. “It’s very reasonable.”

Otto Delph, who spe­cial­izes in the blue and white poly­eth­yl­ene jew­el­ry she was sell­ing at the fes­ti­val, no longer dis­plays at Arts on Main but remains a mem­ber of the guild after mov­ing to Lexington.

“It gives me an oppor­tu­ni­ty to get expo­sure and meet many won­der­ful, artis­tic peo­ple,” she said when asked how being part of the guild ben­e­fits her.

The Winchester Art Guild was estab­lished in 1978 as a 501 (c) 3 non­prof­it by artists and sup­port­ers of the arts, includ­ing Holly VanMeter, Blake Page, Doris Gill, Anna Laura Codell, Julie Anderson, Marge Reed, Barbara Morgan, Nancy Claire Rose, Pat Ross, and Robert Rankin.

The group first had a gallery on East Maple Street and has had gal­leries at loca­tions includ­ing the Winchester Opera House build­ing, the first block of West Lexington Avenue and, since 2018, Arts on Main, at 31 N. Main St., between Howard’s Overhead Doors and the Leeds Center for the Arts.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and at oth­er times for spe­cial events, such as Christmas open hous­es and Summer Sip & Stroll.

About two-thirds of the 30 or so mem­bers of the Winchester Art Guild sell their work at the shop. The work includes water­col­ors, acrylics, pho­tographs, etch­ings, jew­el­ry, leather, wood­work­ing, fur­ni­ture, stained glass, tie-dye, bas­kets, lamps, orna­ments, and a vari­ety of craft items, said Shiela McCord, the group’s pres­i­dent and secretary.

“Everything is hand­made,” and it’s juried work, she said, mean­ing that a pan­el of judges deter­mines whether it’s wor­thy of being dis­played and sold in the gallery. And the mem­bers keep all the mon­ey from what they sell.

“One hun­dred per­cent goes back to the artist. We do not charge a com­mis­sion,” McCord said.

Members sup­port the gallery, either by vol­un­teer­ing to work three-hour shifts three times a month, or by pay­ing a fee. There are no employ­ees. Most of the income is from the rental fees for the fall festival.

“It’s what pays the rent,” McCord said.

Elizabeth Chalfant, a pho­tog­ra­ph­er and the guild’s trea­sur­er, has been involved with the guild and the gallery since 1982, the year after she moved to Winchester.

She said the Winchester Art Guild and Arts on Main are impor­tant to fos­ter­ing a strong local arts presence.

“It says we have tal­ent, we’re show­cas­ing our tal­ent, and we’re proud of the tal­ent that’s in our com­mu­ni­ty,” she said.

Something Chalfant is espe­cial­ly proud of is the sup­port the guild has giv­en young artists by encour­ag­ing the devel­op­ment of their tal­ent. That was an ear­ly goal of the group’s first pres­i­dent, Holly Van Meter, and oth­er found­ing members.

Students don’t have to pay a mem­ber­ship fee.

“We’ve got two 13-year-olds, a 16-year-old in there now, and a col­lege stu­dent,” she said.

Sadie Hess, who joined when she was 12, was the youngest mem­ber to show her work at the gallery, and the old­est is Rose Swope, a retired 4‑H agent in her 80s who does watercolors.

The back­grounds of the artists are diverse. For exam­ple, Chalfant not­ed: “Sue White has an art degree, and Dana McCall is total­ly self-taught.”

Some of the artists, such as Amanda Wangler and Jackie Crouch, teach class­es. But not at the gallery. There isn’t any room. The old build­ing is filled with art and craft items from the bot­tom floor to the sec­ond-sto­ry ceiling.

The shop makes most of its mon­ey dur­ing the Christmas shop­ping sea­son, in October, November, and December. It’s closed in January and February.

For those who seem to have every­thing and are hard to shop for, Arts on Main has a vari­ety of unique but func­tion­al gifts that are afford­able, Chalfant said.

“Probably every­thing in there is under-priced,” she said. “It’s very reasonable.”

And the items are all made by local artists.

“Everybody in the store now is from Clark County. So when we say, ‘Shop local,’ you real­ly are,” Chalfant said.