By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
Glendive’s The Gallery is ready to celebrate 25 years of supporting the arts in Dawson County.
The Gallery is supported by Dawson County Arts Unlimited, a non-profit, all-volunteer organization which traces its beginnings to 28 years ago.
According to current DCAU president Helen Beres, the group began with a very small group of people, including Carol Swanson, Candace Eide, Pia Fizzotti and Candace Callaghan, back in 1988. (Of the original group, Swanson still lives in Glendive, but with the Thanksgiving holiday, the Ranger-Review was unable to reach her for comment before press time.) The group had been brainstorming ideas for economic development following the oil bust of the early 1980s when they decided that one way to possibly enhance Glendive’s economic prospects was to improve its cultural offerings.
It took a couple of years for the fledgling DCAU to get off the ground, and the history of The Gallery itself really began when the group secured a $500 paddlefish caviar grant from the Glendive Chamber of Commerce. That gave them the seed money they needed to rent a building. In 1993, the group got another $5,000 grant from the Montana Legislature, and they were off and running.
The Gallery’s first home was at 111 West Towne Street. After a few years there, they moved out to the West Plaza Shopping Mall, where they occupied a couple of different spaces in the mall during their time there. In 2005, DCAU was able to cobble together enough funding to purchase their own building at 109 North Merrill Avenue in downtown, where it remains to this day.
Beres said the most remarkable thing about The Gallery’s 25-year run is that the entire venture is completely run by volunteers.
“One of the amazing things, I think, is this is operated by volunteers only all these years,” Beres said. “There has never been paid staff. We have a great group of volunteers and we’re really proud of being able to say we own the building.”
Having their own, permanent space to display artwork is of vital importance to the DCAU, as Beres said their entire purpose is “so we can have a place for local artists to show their work and possibly sell their work,” adding that pretty much everything on display in The Gallery is for sale.
And the art in The Gallery is not limited to paintings and photographs, Beres said, noting that with the Christmas shopping season upon us, they also have art which can work well as “gift items,” like pottery and jewelry.
“We probably have about 38 different artists in The Gallery right now, so it’s a lot of variation,” Beres said.
The Gallery will be celebrating their 25th anniversary with an Open House on Sunday, Dec. 4 from 1-4 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and Beres encouraged the community to come join them in the celebration.
“We just want to invite everyone to be sure and come,” she said.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.