WORDS / TAYLOR GLADWIN & KODY FORD

Fayetteville Underground, located on the Downtown Fayetteville Square at 101 West Mountain at the corner of Mountain and Block Streets,  is one of Northwest Arkansas’ more suave art galleries, but it’s also a bridge. Like a blank canvas waiting to be given a mission, Fayetteville Underground is an artist cooperative that works as a support system to move art out of the artists’ homes and into the public eye, and perhaps even into the home of a buyer, all without compromising the integrity of the artist. That is Fayetteville Underground’s mission.

Northwest Arkansas brings a great deal of art to the cultural table. We have poets, photographers, graphic designers, performers, and visual artists, just to name a few. Fayetteville Underground fights in the artists’ corner. As an artist alliance, the gallery works with each artist to ensure that he or she can afford to keep making art. No need to hide your wallets, this does not mean the gallery bumps the prices up for willing buyers.

As Executive Director of the gallery, Julie McQuade does not ask any artist to donate his or her work. Fayetteville is home to a large art community and many nonprofit organizations. Nonprofits sustain themselves by receiving donations. As important as nonprofits are, solely donating work can be monetarily stressful for the artist.

“As far as taxes are concerned, artists don’t get to right off what their piece would sell for. They don’t even get to write off their time. They only get to write off the materials they use. A lot of people don’t realize that,” says McQuade.

When you buy a piece of artwork, you’re paying for quality, not to mention the artist’s time, which is no less valuable than your own. An artist at heart, McQuade wants her artists to continue to do what they love to do, make art. “I protect my artists here. I feel very personally responsible for protecting them and the organization,” said McQuade.

Originally founded in 2009, you might remember Fayetteville Underground when it was actually underground. The founding family of the gallery lost their lease of the basement in One East Center in December of 2011. After hitting rough water, community artists were determined as ever to keep the gallery afloat. With several weeks of meetings and communicating with former Underground artists, not to mention revamping the gallery from the ground up, Fayetteville Underground became what it is today- a strong, safe place for artists to make what they want of their canvas, however abstract that art may be, and however avowed the alleged canvas might be.

Fayetteville Underground supports artists and promotes art of all genres, both traditional and modern. In a world where we see more and more found-art objects, the question of, “what is art?” is asked more frequently. One artist at the gallery who experiments with found-art is Greg Moore. Moore finds art canvases in the trash. Note, the creativity behind these canvases goes beyond what you would find at Hobby Lobby.

A canvas is anything you can use as a building block to make art and that is an infinite array of random items you can find. An invaluable plus is this method takes trash out of the landfill. Not to mention, dare I say it, it’s free art! Or, what will be art once someone gets a hold of it.

Another artist at Fayetteville Underground is Cheri Bohn. One thing that makes Bohn’s art unique is that she recycles old pieces of wood that would normally rot away or be burned. The importance of recycled art is that it gives people an opportunity to see everyday materials in a new way and truly appreciate them.

The newest artist at the gallery is Deirdre West. West is a classic oil painter. She’s been all over the world painting everything from rickshaw drivers in India to the Aztec ruins.

Whether the art be on the cutting edge of ingenuity or representative of the classic era, Fayetteville Underground does not want to be a one-genre gallery. When looking for new artists, the board looks for two things: diversity in the chosen medium, and the use of that medium. By looking for artists who push the limits, experiment with a new technique, are experts in their medium or are on the cutting edge, Fayetteville Underground stays fresh and ever-changing.

Women Take Flight

Throughout the month of June, the Fayetteville Underground is holding a National Juried Art Exhibition themed “Women Take Flight” with work by artists from across the nation who submitted their work for consideration by exhibition juror, Fran Otten. The accepted work comes from artists in eleven different states, as far away as California and New York, in addition to some local artists.

Women Take Flight is the Fayetteville Underground’s first national juried exhibition. The criteria for artwork considered by the juror were two-dimensional visual art, with any interpretation of “Women Take Flight.” Entries were judged on artistic merit, composition, technical merit, use of media, subjective appeal, and the artist’s ability to capture the essence and feeling of women taking flight. The juror was Fran Otten, a national-recognized professional watercolor artist. The exhibit will be on display until June 29, 2013.

Winners of the show were:

  • “Fibers of Her Vision of Flight” – Erika Nelson – oil on canvas – Bentonville, AR – 1st place
  • “Elizabeth Warren” – Lori Klopp – acrylic, oil, and photocopied credit cards and loan applications – Syracuse, NY – 2nd Place
  • “Flight Out” – Kathleen Barta – Springdale, AR – watercolor – 3rd Place
  • “Glory’s Flight” – Alicia Hicks – acrylic – Columbus, GA – Honorable Mention
  • “Freedom” – Ken Kvamme, oil – Fayetteville, AR – Honorable Mention

The theme, Women Take Flight, was chosen for June in recognition of the 2013 Air Race Classic, an annual women’s air race. The 2013 race will be held June 18-21, 2013, starting in Pasco, Washington and finishing in Fayetteville, Arkansas. There will be 55 women’s air race teams accepted for this race. Between Pasco and Fayetteville, teams will be flying 2137 nautical miles in 4 days. You can find out more about this annual air race at http://www.airraceclassic.org/ .

Fayetteville Underground member artist, Martha Molina is a past participant of the Air Classic.

Last Saturday

Every last Saturday of the month, beginning at 7pm, Fayetteville Underground will host Last Saturday, an offshoot of Fayetteville Word Wars events. The best poets, comedians, actors, songwriters, and other verbal artists from Northwest Arkansas come together for a variety show unlike anything you’ve ever seen. The single rule for performers at Word Wars is that they must entertain using their own original words. Each show includes a number of entertainers, as well as the Word War, an audience-judged competition where performers compete to entertain you as much as possible within a time limit.

Admission to Fayetteville Word Wars is free; audience members are encouraged to use their money to buy merchandise from the artists or purchase drinks and snacks. Donations are welcome both for the artists and the continuation of the show.

On June 29, Last Saturday will feature a variety of local performs, entertaining you in 10 minute spurt such as John Henry & Friends, Shishkaboom Puppet Theater, Amanda Rey, & Allison Williams.

For more information on being a part of Fayetteville Word Wars, as a performer or an audience member, e-mail Houston Hughes at HoustonRH7@gmail.com.

VISIT:  FAYETTEVILLEUNDERGROUND.COM

Click a photograph to launch the slide show.

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