by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
“We got started by meeting at people’s homes and at restaurants. After about six months we opened the doors for our first Art Walk in October 2006. I remember the walls weren’t finished. It was just bare drywall so we exhibited our paintings on easels.”
That’s how artist Elaine Bedell recalled the debut of the Art Center Cooperative when it was upstairs at The Carling.
Since then the gallery has moved downstairs to a street-level storefront in the historic apartment building on East Adams Street and a second gallery and studio space has opened on East Bay Street.
Like the “Off the Grid” gallery program administered by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and Downtown Vision, Inc. the Art Center consists of local artists who have forged agreements with Downtown property owners to use some of their unoccupied space without paying rent. Part of the agreement is that when a lease is signed, the artists have to vacate and relocate.
“We have had to move around. We’re on our third space at The Carling and we were also at the Bryan Building near Hemming Plaza,” said artist Annelies Dykgraaf, president of the Art Center Cooperative, which was incorporated more than two years ago.
“We started with a core group of seven members who met at the Art Summit at MOCA. Now we have 25 members,” she added.
All of the artists exhibit their work in the galleries and others have studio spaces. There’s even an experimental dance troupe that rehearses in part of the East Bay Street gallery.
Education has also been added to the Art Center’s agenda. Figure drawing classes open to the public are conducted every Tuesday evening at the East Bay Street gallery except the first Tuesday of each month when the class is shifted to Wednesday evening to coincide with Art Walk.
“For Art Walk we have a clothed model,” said Dykgraaf.
About a year ago the Art Center’s members expanded their mission into the community when they began to work with local social service agencies to create murals at the nonprofits’ locations.
“We’re working with Head Start on Moncrief Road, Community Connections and the Jacksonville Speech and Hearing Center,” said Dykgraaf. “It’s a statement of ours to work with the community for the betterment of neighborhoods and we always involve the children who are served by the agencies.”
Cultural Council Deputy Director Amy Crane commented, “We are particularly proud to see the Art Center artists look outside themselves and reach out to share their creative spirit. It really shows how the arts can impact the community and they are making a difference.”
Crane also considers the Art Center’s founders the spark that got the movement going to bring local artists to the urban core. What they have accomplished laid the groundwork for “Off the Grid.”
“Even though the artists have had to move a couple of times the Art Center has always persevered and been successful. They were absolutely the pioneers,” she said.
When asked what’s next for the cooperative, Dykgraaf said when a group of highly creative people get together and work passionately toward common objectives, anything is possible but one mission is shared by all involved.
“Our goal is to continue to contribute to creating a vibrant Downtown,” she declared.
For more information on the Art Center artists and the group’s exhibits and educational programs, visit www.blogfromthecenter.blogspot.com.
Annelies Dykgraaf, president of the Art Center Cooperative, Inc.
Dat Nguyen in his studio at the Art Center Cooperative.
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