‘The Minds of Many’ show set to open during Pioneer Festival

A cou­ple of weeks ago, Randy Patrick wrote about progress on the restora­tion of Winchester’s his­toric McEldowney Building on the cour­t­house square down­town. Randy not­ed that part of the ren­o­vat­ed space will be devot­ed to a new art gallery. 

On Sunday, I got a sneak pre­view of the gallery space and met some of the peo­ple behind the project. To be known as The Gallery Above, the space will show­case works from local artists on parts of the sec­ond and third floors of the structure. 

The Gallery Above will offi­cial­ly open on September 2, coin­cid­ing with the annu­al Pioneer Festival down­town. That show is titled “The Minds of Many.” 

Among the many peo­ple who have been the dri­ving force toward the open­ing is Jeffery Hale, co-own­er of Mason On Main and an ele­men­tary school art teacher in a near­by county. 

“The his­toric McEldowney build­ing is now owned by DAM Holdings, LLC,” Jeffery told me dur­ing our meet­ing on Sunday. He was there all week­end, receiv­ing pieces from local artists for place­ment in the gallery. Artists were com­ing and going dur­ing my visit.

“One of its own­ers is Adam Kidd,” Jeffery con­tin­ued, “and he and I have been dream­ing of cre­at­ing a com­mu­ni­ty art space. So this show is just the begin­ning. The show is called ‘The Minds of Many,’ but the gallery itself is called The Gallery Above because it sits above Main Street in Winchester. 

“Adam and I kept think­ing about this space and his company’s mis­sion: to make the McEldowney part of this com­mu­ni­ty. We decid­ed that we want­ed to cre­ate a com­mu­ni­ty space for artists. We knew that we need­ed to get The Winchester Art Guild involved because the guild is the face of the arts in Winchester.”

Jeffery and the guild agreed to have the guild spon­sor the show and open it dur­ing the Pioneer Festival, which is also spon­sored by the art guild. During a vis­it to the guild, Jeffery was impressed by a young artist whose work was dis­played there. Dominic Keim is a ris­ing senior at GRC whose fam­i­ly has lived in Winchester for only about a year. But Dominic is mak­ing a splash in his adopt­ed hometown. 

Says Jeffery, “Dominic is incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed. I think, as an art teacher, I can say ‘bril­liant.’

Dominic is a bit more mod­est, telling me this was the first pub­lic show­ing of his work. His moth­er, who was there with us, quick­ly point­ed out that he has a web­site and has sold his work to pay­ing clients. Mothers do that sort of thing. 

Dominic became more ani­mat­ed when I asked how he got involved with art.

“I’ve been draw­ing or paint­ing of some kind for­ev­er. I mean, ever since I could hold some­thing in my hand. I start­ed paint­ing about ten years ago and did draw­ing before that. I start­ed sell­ing my art about three or four years ago, and it’s been going real­ly well. And then, when we moved to Kentucky, I joined the art guild. Just about a year ago.”

One vis­it to Dominic’s web­site gallery (Artwork by Dominic Keim) con­firms that he is the real deal. He hopes to make his future liv­ing from his art­work, and his tal­ent undoubt­ed­ly ris­es to that level. 

Ken Howard, pres­i­dent of the Winchester Art Guild, was also present and quick­ly point­ed out that Dominic is the youngest guild member.

“We’ve [the art guild] been around since ’74,” Ken told me. “We start­ed in this build­ing, and some of the folks com­ing in and exhibit­ing start­ed it. Part of our mis­sion today is to encour­age, fos­ter, and men­tor young artists like Dominic. So we give schol­ar­ships, we spon­sor stu­dent mem­bers at no charge — no mem­ber­ship fee, no charge for anything. 

“We want to wrap our arms around them and pro­vide sup­port and encour­age­ment for them. Sometimes that’s hard to do. It’s hard to remain pos­i­tive with your work and your art when no one is see­ing it, no one’s appre­ci­at­ing it, and no one’s telling you to keep going. 

“We’ve got to encour­age the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion — the younger gen­er­a­tion — to come up and keep us going.”

I asked Ken about the con­nec­tion between the Winchester Art Guild and Arts on Main.

“Arts on Main is our retail store, and there are 22 of us that show things in the store, and we sell what we make. Dominique has paint­ings and prints in there. I’ve got pot­tery in there. We’ve got gourds, we’ve got stained glass, we’ve got prints and paint­ings of the old Spharr Building. So that’s where we have a phys­i­cal space.

“But this [the new gallery] is a not-for-prof­it space. This is not a space where we will be tak­ing com­mis­sions for the sale of artists’ work. Our goal is to make art acces­si­ble to the com­mu­ni­ty. And our dream is that we will have shows perpetually.”

Another artist who was there with us was Kevin Osbourne. I asked him about his involve­ment with the arts and the guild. 

“I didn’t start paint­ing again until about two years ago. It’s been more in the last cou­ple of years that I’ve got­ten involved. I know Jeffrey, and he’s been very encour­ag­ing. Adam [Kidd] is my neigh­bor. And I applaud Adam and Ken and Jeffery and Dominic. Because I think it’s great to be appre­ci­at­ed as an artist. 

“And besides that,” he added with a sly grin, “I’m run­ning out of space in my house.

“I was look­ing at retire­ment a cou­ple of years ago and won­der­ing what I would want to do. A long time ago, I thought about being an artist full-time. And when this oppor­tu­ni­ty came along, I start­ed look­ing at this as some­thing I want­ed to do.”

I chat­ted with Jeffery Hale again lat­er, and he seemed to be both­ered that the spot­light was too much focused on him. 

“An artist makes art because that is who they are. The pur­pose of this space is to give them an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show. Because show­ing our art is a way to com­mu­ni­cate and con­nect with oth­ers. That is why the show is called ‘The Minds of Many.’ An oppor­tu­ni­ty for the artist to share their perspective.

“When I start­ed plan­ning, I just cre­at­ed a list of all the won­der­ful artists in the com­mu­ni­ty that took the time to engage me and become friends. It’s the who’s who of Winchester. It’s all for them. They have nev­er had a show about them. And no one has refused my request. They need­ed this, and our com­mu­ni­ty might [as a result of the show] see itself differently.

“But this show is real­ly about present and past mem­bers of the guild and how they keep the arts alive in Winchester.”