A dream 10 years in the making becomes a reality on Friday with the grand opening of O Street Gallery in downtown Redding.
Located upstairs from the Oregon Street Antique Mall at 1261 Oregon St., the spacious gallery will be home to rotating exhibits by a dozen or more north state artists. Redding artist and interior decorator Shelly Shively will serve as the gallery curator.
Friday’s grand opening, from 7 to 9 p.m., will offer visitors a chance to meet the participating artists and view their work. Jazz guitarist Bernie Baker will perform and light refreshments will be served.
Phil and Kate Barker, who own the downstairs antique mall, first envisioned a gallery in the upstairs loft when they became investors in the building 10 years ago. “We were wandering around up there and we just thought what a great place for a gallery,” Kate Barker recalled.
The upstairs space brought to mind a gallery the Barkers enjoyed in Sacramento that was also a converted loft. “It had a really cool feel about it,” she said. She shared her idea with an artist friend, who enthusiastically endorsed it and suggested the name O Street Gallery to coincide with the Oregon Street address.
“We thought it would be neat to have a place where local artists could share their work. At first it was going to just be Redding and then we expanded out to Northern California,” Kate Barker said.
Shively, who put her interior design skills to work to create exhibit spaces in the gallery, likes the ambiance. “It has an urban feel to it,” she said. “We want this to be a cultural hub with art classes and demonstrations. We want to make art more approachable and take away the mystique a lot of galleries have.
“We want it to be open and inviting; we want art to be created here,” Shively said.
As work on the gallery continued, Shively and the Barkers were approached by musicians interested in the space as a performance venue. The idea of hosting a fashion show also has been entertained and children’s art classes are a possibility.
“We’re trying to be very open-minded about all the possibilities that we haven’t even thought of yet,” Shively said. “We’re already thinking about expanding our hours during the holiday season.”
Shively, who operates a booth in the antique mall with her sister, A News Café publisher Doni Chamberlain, expects the gallery to benefit from the adjoining antique mall. “The antique store gets a lot of traffic from people going up and down the I-5 corridor, so there will really be a lot of opportunity for mixing. Eventually we’d like to get a coffee bar upstairs and some artists will want to paint up here and we welcome that.”
Woody’s Brewing Co., a brewpub setting up shop next door in the former Tapas Downtown building, is also expected to generate some foot traffic in the antique mall and gallery, Shively said.
Artists featured at O Street Galley’s grand opening are Gary Thomas, Chuck Prudhomme, Stephanie Luke, Stacey Arcangel, Delainie Laing, Michael Haley, Nanci Sackett, Jan Scanlin, Mollie Flack, Dottie Turk, Sandy Tincher, Ana Fuentes, Gwen and Gene Knaebel, Michelle Sparks and John Stewart.
The initial exhibit will be on display through the first week of December. The next rotation of works will be on display from December through February. The gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays.
For additional information on exhibits and events at O Street Gallery, email Shively at leinanishively@gmail.com.
[nggallery id=69]
Jon Lewis is a freelance writer living in Redding. He has more than 30 years experience writing for newspapers and magazines. Contact him at jonpaullewis@gmail.com.
