Page 33 - WilmU - Spring 2017

that threshold,” he says. “Art does that to a person.”
He understood the challenges the state would have in finding a director to lead this peer-run art space. “Right off the bat,” he says, “I just knew that there was a lot of inherent value in creating that zone, but to have that zone be radically open and accessible to the streets of Wilmington, I knew it was going to be a grand experiment.”
Having such an organization in the heart of downtown, now in its sixth year, is vital to helping underserved individuals find em-
The space, which includes a community gathering room, is open to the public on a walk-in basis. About 300 people use the space in a year, with a regular group of 60 to 70 people each week.
powerment in their own creativity, while also allowing the community to grow and flourish as these diverse groups meet and work together. And economic benefits come with this interaction.
“We’ve been able to operate off the logic that if you just give people a place to be, give them some opportunity and direction in terms of this artistic platform, you’ll get them to continue to self-select back into the community,” Kalmbach says.
The space, which includes a community gathering room and a studio, is open to the public on a walk-in basis. About 300 people use the space in a year, with a regular group of 60 to 70 people each week. Workshops and individual instruction are provided. Individuals work on creating works for their own satisfaction or for public exhibitions or performances, which are regularly held at a variety of venues and on various art tours and art walks through the city and region. Other artists have published their works in books.
“Any given day,” says Kalmbach, “you have members from the general public mixed in with the members, former art students and local artists.”
On this particular day, painting is happening in one corner, in another a woman is drawing, and a group talks quietly in yet another. In the studio next to the kiln are numerous ceramic pieces decorated by elementary school children of Stubbs Elementary on the East Side, and dipped in an unfinished glaze, ready to be fired. The pieces will be part of a large mosaic in the school’s entryway. The mosaic project is one of several public art projects the organization is leading this year.
Myriad artists come in to share their expertise. Kalmbach mentions one local artist whose sharing of mosaic skills has led to numerous individual projects, as well as several completed and planned community mosaic projects in the area, including the ongoing one at Stubbs. Another example of a public art mosaic is the recently-installed wall just up the street from the organization’s storefront. The Creative Vision Factory held a block party to install it, with local children and their parents coming out to help. The pieces are ceramic with generous uses of cut mirror, which flash with the reflected lights of cars driving down the street.
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