By Miles Hilton
The second annual ArtScapes public art exhibition has opened at Chautauqua Art Gallery in downtown Jamestown. A public reception will be held this Friday, May 17th from 5-7:30pm. The indoor exhibition, which features the original artwork selected for the show, precedes the outdoor exhibition. In June, a set of banners featuring the pieces will be hung throughout Jamestown, transforming downtown into an outdoor art gallery. Many of the pieces on display are for sale through the Chautauqua Art Gallery.
Leslie Calimeri, owner of Chautauqua Art Gallery, started ArtScapes last year in partnership with the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation and the Jamestown Parks Department. “It went really well” last year, Calimeri says, “so we’re doing it again!”
Like last year, regional artists were invited to submit pieces to a jury of art professionals, who selected the pieces featured in the indoor and outdoor exhibits. 295 pieces were submitted this year, which the jurors winnowed down to 56 banners. The pieces span mediums, from watercolor and oil painting, to ceramics, jewelry, and collage.
ArtScapes is a community-focused event, featuring local artists and supported by local business sponsors. While a number of last year’s sponsors returned this year, Calimeri says the show attracted “as many new sponsors” as old ones. The success of the inaugural event helped make this year’s even more successful. “People who didn’t know what it was” last year “said, ‘Oh, what is this project?’” and asked how to submit work or sponsor a banner, says Calimeri.
Katherine Kepner, one of the artists with work in this year’s exhibits, learned about ArtScapes shortly after moving to the area last year. “I was very excited” to have work accepted last year, says Kepner, “because I had just moved here. It was my first foray into this art community.” Through ArtScapes, Kepner met some of the people in the local art scene and “gained a lot of confidence” as a newly-arrived member. “I met wonderful people,” she says, and was excited to have work accepted for a second time.
One of Calimeri’s goals is to make the show “as accessible as possible for people to enter”. There is no fee to submit art work, and the call for artists was publicized in Spanish this year to reach a broader audience. Additionally, The Resource Center’s Edgewater Art House, an art space and teaching center for artists with disabilities, sponsored two banners displaying art by it’s membership.
The indoor exhibit will be on view at Chautauqua Art Gallery until June 29, and the outdoor banners will be displayed for about a year. There is also an online exhibition at www.chautauquaartgallery.com/artscape for those who can’t see the works in Jamestown, “although”, Calimeri reminds, “it’s especially better in person.”