CASTLE ROCK —For the , the best gift this holiday season may be having a newly refurbished gallery to attract holiday shoppers.
The guild, which leaders say is 100 percent self-sustaining and volunteer-run, celebrated the grand reopening of its in early November. The gallery is at 314 Wilcox St.
A few months ago, the guild was considering moving out of the space for financial reasons, but thanks to private donations and some restructuring of how the gallery works with artists, the guild instead was able to refurbish it, president Suzanne Opp said.
Opp, who has been helping lead the guild since 2014, said the gallery is critical because it gives the guild a public presence in the community and, more importantly, provides an always-available space to host the many public and events the guild offers for art lovers young and old.
“We’ve had this space for about two years and it’s a really precious commodity. It gives us a space to interact with people coming in off of the street,” Opp said.
The guild is about 10 years old and has roughly 250 members who pay a $35 annual membership fee, according to guild vice president Michelle Campbell.
On the inside, Art on the Edge was not dramatically changed by the remodeling that closed it for the entire month of September. The formerly white walls were painted a neutral, grayish, “warm stone” color, helping the art and barn wood highlights stand out better. A few moveable walls were added, and a gift shop, formerly spread out on tables throughout the space, was consolidated at the back.
More importantly, the guild moved from a more traditional gallery arrangement, where it was collecting 35 percent on each piece sold, to more of an art collective, where select artists, chosen through a jury process, pay a rental fee to hang pieces on a dedicated portion of gallery wall for fixed amount of time with the guild collecting just 10 percent on each sale.
The ultimate purpose, Campbell and Opp said, is to strengthen the guild’s already robust offerings of and opportunities, many of which are held in the back room of Art on the Edge. Under the leadership of guild education director Chris Hoynes, and with the help of numerous artists who donated their time, the guild offered more than a dozen classes in November, covering art forms as diverse as playing guitar and wood burning.
The guild is a regular participant in downtown Castle Rock events, staffing an information booth and offering small art projects for people to take part in when they stop by.
Jason Gray is president of Castle Rock’s
. The owner of Crowfoot Valley Coffee said the guild has been part of nearly every event the association has organized in recent years and has been a valuable partner is keeping art front and center in Castle Rock.
“I just think it’s hugely important. We would love to have more art downtown,” Gray said. “If these guys left, it would hard to look to the future of that kind of venue. They’ve been great partners.”
has been a guild member for almost its entire existence. The wood-burning artist, who creates pieces around the natural shapes found in wood grain, teaches monthly classes in the art form and is among the artists featured on Art on the Edge’s walls under the new collective approach. He said he sees the gallery space as a tremendous asset for the entire community.
“I think the gallery has been bringing in a lot of artists from out of the woodwork,” Anders said. “It’s a great opportunity for the artists and the guild, too, to build a presence downtown.”
Joe Rubino: 303-954-2953 or jrubino@denverpost.com
Art on the edge
Where: 314 Wilcox St., Castle Rock
Walk-in hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday Meet the Artists Reception: 5-9 p.m. Dec. 5
Info: 303-814-3300
