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“It's very hard to run a fine arts gallery in the city, and it’s impossible to run one in the country,” says Cynthia Schaal. And she knows whereof she speaks. Ms. Schaal is not only the regional coordinator for the Virginia Commission for the Arts; she is also the former owner of a city gallery.
Probably the only businesses with a Higher failure rate than new restaurants are new fine arts galleries, so in 1981 when Middle Street opened in Washington, Va., it's understandable if the experts raised their eyebrows. A gallery in a town of 2.20 people, the county seat for an agricultural county of just over 6, 000 people? No way it could last, the experts sniffed.
Hut the prognosticators didn’t reckon with the inventiveness and dedication of Rappahannock County’s community of artists. Middle Street Gallery has done more than just last. With a group show opening Sunday, Nov. <>, the non-profit artists’ cooperative celebrates its seventh anniversary and begins a milestone year of ambitious undertakings.
For the 1989 season. Middle Street will open its exhibitions to more guests, inviting artists from around the region to display their works. “We want to be more of an exhibition space for emerging artists in the entire area and not just for our member artists,” explained Laurie Marshall, the gallery’s community education chairman.
As a new member of TEAMS (Traveling Exhibition Art and Media Services), the gallery will be using the resources of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, regularly screening its films as well as exhibiting loaned pieces at special shows, such as the Middle Street-curated exhibitions of native American art and folk art set for January and July.
In March, Middle Street will again be host to the 7th Congressional District’s High School Art Competition and will concurrently display works by young artists from Rappahannock County High School and Wakefield Country Day School in Huntly.
For 1989, the emphasis will also be on education. On the small scale, artists will be invited to display alongside their works their written explanations of what art means to them.
On the larger scale, guest instructors will present a whole slate of classes for a target audience ranging from school-aged children to senior citizens, and the gallery will again apply with the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and the Community (RAAC) for an artist in residence under the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s program. In addition. the Virginia Museum films ob
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