Tonight, the sixth iteration of Our Art, Our Region, Our Time is revealed to the public. The 102 works of art from 87 different artists represent people living in nearly two dozen different communities, from Bella Vista to Shady Point, Oklahoma, from Ozark to Holiday Island.
The exhibition's pieces at Alexander Gallery at Porter Art Warehouse in downtown Fayetteville were selected from more than 600 submissions. This week, we prepared for the opening with Thomas DeBari, director of visual arts at Walton Arts Center, and Kathy Thompson, curator for the Our Art, Our Region, Our Time exhibition. Thomas says putting the exhibition together every year is a marvel of creativity and cooperation.
DeBari: Big visual arts team that is from the Walton Arts Center that was able to get it down to under 200. And then Kathy worked her butt off, just getting it down to 87. And she had to make a lot of hard calls and a lot of hard decisions, and what comes out of that pressure is obviously a diamond of a show.
Kellams: And of course, then you have all the works of art, more than 100. You got to get 'em in the gallery, you got to light them, you got to get them installed.
Thompson: You gotta figure out where they're going, how they hang together.
DeBari: Yes. Getting them in the gallery, I feel like, is one of the scariest things because there's sort of a overwhelming. You're trying to wrangle 87 people to come in. And our artists did a fabulous job of all showing up on the days that they were supposed to come in. And it was actually really seamless.
Thompson: It was easier this year than it's ever been.
DeBari: And I'm really grateful for that.
Thompson: Yeah. I learned something too, this time just from the people bringing in their art. I've told Thomas, but it just still astounds me, so many of the people, because I like to talk to everybody that I can. So many of those people have just moved here in the last year.
Kellams: I mean, there are certain exhibitions that are an artist, and it might be a retrospective of their career or a period. There are exhibitions that come together like this is how artists saw the ocean in the 19th and 20th centuries. This one, of course, is our region. Is it unfair to try to get any more theme out of it than this is the art of our region?
Thompson: It's the first year that I have actually felt like that. People in our region who were Hispanic, all of the different areas, categories are there, and that makes me so happy. You also have to realize that it's part over into Oklahoma and a top on Missouri and then down like to Dardanelle.
Kellams: Yell County. All right.
Thompson: That's our region. Over to Eureka. So there are a lot of different themes and ideas, but what I saw this year is that people are talking about them, they're painting about them, and it's in this show.
Kellams: You mentioned some people have just moved here, so it might be their first time exhibiting in this region. Any idea if there's anyone exhibiting anywhere for the first time?
DeBari: Yes, for sure there is.
Thompson: I mean, some of the young people, especially, we have quite a few, like high school, even younger age.
DeBari: 17-, 18-year-olds. Some people that are first time showing their work. And there's like a handful of those types of people that are artists that are in there.
And so yeah, it's an opportunity for artists of every different category, whether you're young and just making things, or you're older and just started making things, or you've been a lifelong artist, or you're in school and you're at the University of Arkansas. This is a show that's about diversity in every way, shape or form. As Kathy said earlier, whether it's ethnicity or age or where you're at in terms of whether or not you even think about yourself as an artist. We're like, you make something, you build something, you create something. Let's have that in the show.
Kellams: What can it mean for someone? You're not an artist. You don't have a friend or a family member who's in the show. You're just wandering in and you're seeing a vibrant art scene in your region. What can that reflect back to you?
Thompson: It makes me so happy, and that people recognize that. And it also reflects as to what kind of community we are. And I think that in the very long run, that is the most important thing to me, is that it tells other people who are coming in what kind of an accepting, loving community we live in. And you know what's better than that?
Kathy Thompson is curator for the sixth edition of Our Art, Our Region, Our Time, opening tonight at Alexander Gallery at Porter Art Warehouse in downtown Fayetteville. Also part of our conversation, Thomas DeBari, director of visual arts at Walton Arts Center.
The opening reception tonight is free, but with timed registration required. And as of yesterday, all of those free timed slots had been claimed. But don't worry, the exhibition is open to the public through Dec. 20. And every first Thursday night of the month during the exhibition, Walton Arts Center will host a vinyl night with music provided by Odeon Collective.
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