The Fayetteville Gallery Hop is this Saturday. The twice-yearly event takes art lovers and collectors across the city to explore eight different art galleries. Earlier this week, Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis visited a gallery in an unexpected space to learn more about the citywide event. He gives us this report.
In 2022, Melissa Milton was shooting a video walkthrough of an empty Banana Republic storefront. Four years later, that empty store has grown into a community hub for art and art education. This is The Art Gallery at the NWA Mall.
Milton, a Fayetteville native, retired attorney and now artist, helps run the nonprofit art gallery. But why start an art gallery in a mall?
“How this gallery got started is the mall posted on social media that they were considering donating space to local artists, and they were holding an informational meeting, and a bunch of us showed up, probably about 60 local artists, I’d say. And they said, ‘Here’s the deal. We’ll donate the space, but you have to run it completely on your own. We’re not going to run it for you, and you’ll pay all the utilities, but we will donate the space.’ And so they gave us a clipboard where we could put our name and contact info, and we organize ourselves.”
A group of volunteers got to work soliciting donations, recruiting artists and even more volunteers. Milton used her experience as a lawyer to get the gallery registered as a 501(c)(3).
Now, the gallery holds numerous works almost exclusively by artists from Benton and Washington counties. And this weekend, folks will get a chance to explore it, along with seven other art galleries, during the Fayetteville Gallery Hop.
The free, self-guided crawl will occur on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can visit the gallery at the mall, plus the Pond Gallery, two on Mount Sequoyah, the Community Creative Center, the Walton Arts Center’s Alexander Gallery and more.
Each gallery has its own unique character and story to explore, but the gallery at the mall has dedicated itself to supporting local artists. You have to apply and become a member to show your work in the gallery, but it is also a teaching gallery, so for most artists, it’s their first one.
The space contains a rotating solo exhibit, a temporary veterans art display and six more rooms with paintings, sculptures, jewelry and lots in between. Milton says that while everything on the wall is for sale, that’s what makes it an art gallery, not a museum. Some people might want to take something smaller home, so they put in a gift shop with prints and other budget-friendly items. And behind it all, there is community space.
“This is what was the back room of the Banana Republic. Hence all the shelves, which we think are perfect for storing art, as you can see. And we use this area for our classroom. Like I say, initially we had to borrow folding chairs and tables to have classes. Our artists volunteer to teach. If you’re an artist here and you want to teach a class, you can teach a class. And we have an artist who coordinates all the classes and make sure we have a closet there full of art supplies.
“We’re always happy to take donations for art supplies for art classes, because we pay for everything. Someone can come here and take an art class, and it does not cost them a penny.”
The community art space took a community’s worth of effort to activate, but the gallery has grown a lot since its humble beginnings. And now, she says, new people find their way through the doors almost every weekend. And this Saturday, hopefully they’ll get even more new faces in the gallery during the Fayetteville Gallery Hop.
Thomas DeBari is the director of visual arts for the Walton Arts Center’s Alexander Gallery at Porter Art Warehouse. He’s a fellow member of the Fayetteville Gallery Coalition with Milton. His gallery is also participating in the gallery hop, and the Alexander Gallery is similar to the gallery at the mall because it also had a life before becoming an art gallery. It was once the Vernon and Moore-McIlroy Produce Warehouse and, in the early 20th century, held regional produce like apples, not art.
DeBari says that the warehouse and gallery have found their place in downtown Fayetteville, and things are going well. The gallery hop has grown into its own, too, this year, with a new stop, a raffle prize at each one and a simple, accessible way to navigate the crosstown circuit.
“The University of Arkansas has donated transportation to take you to six locations featuring eight different galleries, and some of those locations are the Walton Arts Center Community Creative Center at the corner of West and Spring. That’s one spot, which is also a spot where you can park your car, get on the bus and travel. Another spot is up here at the mall, where the art gallery at the mall is.”
“Yes, we have lots of parking here, so it’s another one of many good spots to park your car and hop on a shuttle bus.”
“Absolutely. And these buses rotate also up to Mount Sequoyah, where there’s two galleries there as well, Fenix and the Gallery for Creative Spaces for Mount Sequoyah as well. Other galleries that we’ll be making stops at are the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, Pond Gallery and Ashley Cardiel Interiors, who has a gallery set up inside her business. And this is the first time she’s been on our list, which has been exciting.”
DeBari says the gallery hop is more than just a fun day. It’s a great way to expose the community to the many different galleries in Fayetteville.
“And it’s also very important for people to understand how big the gallery scene is here in Fayetteville and in Northwest Arkansas, and how many talented artists that we have. And it’s a really wonderful way for people to celebrate them all in the scope of one day.”
You can find more details about the Fayetteville Gallery Hop here. Again, it’s this Saturday, Oct. 17, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
