EAG was closed in 2021 due to COVID-19. We have been working in the digital realms and partnering with other organizations to assist them in industry standards for Gallery curating, hanging, installing and digital solutions. Reach out for a quote: [email protected]
Our Mission
Erie Art Gallery strives to bring together local, regional, and national art that promotes the widest variety of artistic expression, while activating space within the Erie City Downtown district.
Where Are We?
We are everywhere. We have closed due to pandemic. We still offer socially POP-up art shows and support other artists with our services. We partner with other organization to provide a financially sustainable business model.
What We Do
The Erie Art Gallery is an inspired and innovative community hub, which will inject art and activate the area. We want to support the ongoing betterment of Downtown Erie. Together with the Erie people connect with art, artists, ideas and each other.
LQBTQ+ Art Show
Sixteen LGBTQ artists were chosen to display works for the exhibit at Erie Art Gallery.
Mike Tkach was busy last week helping hang art at Erie Art Gallery for the inaugural LGBTQ Regional Juried Art Exhibit opening Saturday at the gallery at 24 W. Eighth St. Tkach said 16 LGBTQ artists were chosen to display one work each for the show. The chosen artwork includes painting, photography and mixed-media sculpture.
The show is hosted by the Greater Erie Alliance for Equality and members are busy cleaning and painting inside and out for the upcoming show. Tkach said some of the artists chosen are from Cleveland, Akron, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Erie.
The show’s two jurors are Sharon Louden, artistic director of visual arts at Chautauqua Institute, and Hrag Vartanian, who co-founded the art magazine Hyperallergic.
The Greater Erie Alliance for Equality (GEAE) would like to thank all the artists, our jurors, patrons, and the Erie community for making this first art exhibit a success.
Over 40 pieces were submitted and 15 were selected to represent the emerging voice of LGBTQ artists and three were chosen to receive an award to help propel their work even further.
The closing reception for the month-long event brought artists in from Cleveland and Chautauqua Institution, in addition to those right here in Erie.
A special thank you to Hrag Vartanian and Sharon Louden for jurying this show and exhibition. Your expertise and insightful comments encouraged new artists to continue their work and inspired established artists to reach ideas.
Congratulations to Gwen Singer, Paper Buck, Karen Bradfield for lending their incredible voices to this movement.
Erie’s first Online VR Gallery goes into BETA
Erie Art Gallery has partnered with Erie Multimedia Guru Greg Windle to produce Erie’s first VR Gallery. Erie’s talent needs to be shown to the world. One of these ways is with the virtual gallery using the new Matterport Camera and rendering system. Erie Art Gallery will be adding interactive data to the VR by allowing users to view information about the piece as well as buy it online. EAG’s plan is to scan each art show and allow users to view shows from the past as well as interact with current show. Google cardboard and VR headsets will be available at the gallery once we perfect our algorithm.
Currently Erie Art Gallery is working with Erie Multimedia in a BETA phase to create a Proof of concept.
Artists Meetups
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Erie Art Gallery will offer its space for an Artist Meet & Critique
The 1st Friday of every Month at the Erie Art Gallery will open its doors to emerging artists. We invite them to bring up to two pieces of your work for our event. Artists and general public in attendance are welcome to engage in positive feedback and collaboration .
We Help Artists Find Opportunities.
Erie Art Gallery is committed to the Erie Artist and to Downtown Erie. We want to offer a place where artist can get help and support from each other and expose them to other artists.
We want to be a conduit for professional arts opportunities. We will work with local organizations to give support and information to artist who may not be connected to those opportunities
We Provide Free Entrepreneurial Guidance and Support.
Erie Art Gallery holds open forum discussions as well as a guest lecture series. Our purpose is to engage and discuss opportunities available to artists, their own journeys, and advice for those emerging.
Artist Highlight: Megan Valenci
Painting is the key to my secret garden, and behind the hazel cast windows, I find a way inside. The way down the rabbit hole, to the Under-land of my soul. Drawing began my obsession with the visual storytelling of my thoughts, and over the last 15 years I have experimented with many different mediums, pastels, pencil, charcoal, and finally graduating to paint. Even today I am still trying to find the best way to express those thoughts and feelings, and at times my style never seems the same. Perhaps because I haven’t found myself yet. I’m still looking, but by painting every chance I get, I get a little closer to reaching the places of my inner self, a place that I can’t find using words. The happy accidents that give life to the emotionally charged paintings I create are more rewarding than merely the completion of a work.
When I look at my personal art, I don’t see a particular pattern, yet a favorite concept of mine to practice is the human face. The human form in and of itself, is beautiful and striking, drastically different from one body and personality to another. I try to translate the energy of those souls into the expression of color and the way the paint is applied using a palette knife or deliberate, hard strokes of a brush. The only parts of my art that are conscious is the application of color and construction of shapes. With influences as diverse as Kahlo, Dali, Ryden, Milne, Warhol, and Van Gogh, but not limited to Matisse, and Pollock, new synergies are created from both complex and simplistic meanings and ideas. Ever since I was a pre-teen, I have been fascinated by dreams, and underlying realities of our own personal perspectives. Tales of mythology primarily focused on humanity and personal struggle, have always resonated with me deeply, especially as someone who struggles with crippling anxiety, and depression. Beneath the physical guise of happiness and vibrancy, my work comes out in expressions of sadness, anxiety, and feelings of restlessness converged with moments of joy, and light. Different possibilities. As shimmering forms become transformed through emergent and academic practice, the viewer is left with an insight into the possibilities of our own future as a society, but also the battle we wage within every day.
Come see her work at Erie Art Gallery till June 23rd
2018 A Woman’s Voice Through Art
Erie Art Gallery is calling for entries that embrace and celebrate the female artist and her voice. Women are standing up all over the world and finding their special moment of empowerment, their truths, and their stories. In this open art call, we are asking for your interpretation of the feminine voice.
CLOSED
Important Dates:
Digital Submission EXTENDED Deadline: APRIL 6th, 2018
Notification of Acceptance: By Monday, Apr 9, 2018
Delivery of Works (if accepted): Friday, May 4, 2018
Opening Reception ( Gallery Night ): Friday May 18th 7pm – 10 pm
Submission Guidelines
Open to all local, domestic, and national professional and amateur female and female-identifying artists. All art mediums will be considered in this call for submissions, from photography, sculpture, ceramics, fabric, mixed media, digital, video, and audio. Also all paintings and drawings including, oil, acrylic, pastels, ink, graphite, etc.
Selected Artists: Featuring the works of 19 women and woman-identifying artists, A Woman’s Voice seeks to provide a glimpse into the diversity of lives and experiences of being a woman. These national, juried works include photography, painting, mixed media, and sculpture. The show will open May 18th for Gallery Night with a musical reception and will remain open to the public until the end of June. Erie Art Gallery is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1-5 pm and Fridays and Saturdays from 1-7 pm.
Katie Stone
Sarah Whitman
Gliser Fuentes Mena
Megan Valenic
Kamara Townes
Ellen Bane
Ruth Scanzillo
Ella Hisenrath
Nancy Pallan
Caitlin Wismer
Tanya DeSantis
Janice Milhem
Marla Roddy
Tina Ybarra
Brittney Ciccone
Emily Brunner
Cassi Unger
Erin Holscher Almazan
Christianna Kreiss
We Thank you all for your time and dedication.
Sincerely,
Margo Wolfe & Brad Ford
Please email Brad Ford for any questions. [email protected]
Radius Gallery -2018
Radius Gallery was a project to activate empty offices in the Renaissance Building. This project was originally the brainchild of Matthew Retkowski
Originally published in Radius Co-work Blog
As part of Erie’s Downtown Revitalization art installations, artworks, and interactive art displays should accompany the renewal of commercial office space. The Radius Gallery exemplifies this mission.
As the Radius Gallery continues to enliven the Renaissance building by increasing foot traffic, highlighting local artistic talent, and increasing the general visibility of the arts in our community, it is also important to encourage more property owners to patronize local artists for their storefront art.
The Radius Gallery seeks to spark a broader conversation about art. What is art? How can art lead to a vibrant Downtown renewal?
Radius Gallery’s last show highlighted Roman Glass and his business No Dress Code Studios located in the Renaissance Building. His inspired textile designs were featured at the Radius Gallery on May 20th to June 20th and included on the Erie Art Museum’s Gallery Night.
Glass’ show consists of the actual screens Glass uses to create his textile works of art. His products were also on display. Roman Glass is an artist who works in the art of serigraph. By examining ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, Glass makes work that deals with the documentation of events and the question of how they can be presented. His work tries to express this with the help of color and shape, not by telling a story or creating a metaphor.
Erie Art Gallery, Why Art? -Pat Bywater:
We need to get people downtown and we need to get feet on the street,” Brad Ford said of the non-profit art gallery he plans to open. “This is a way to activate unused space and get people interested.”
For the past three years, 45-year-old Erie native Brad Ford has spent much of his free time planning the art gallery he will open Saturday.
If his landlord tells him to leave when his short-term lease is up because a for-profit tenant visited the gallery, a formerly empty space in downtown Erie’s Masonic Temple, and wants it, Ford will be thrilled.
And if other entrepreneurs copy his non-profit model and start similar galleries, Ford will cheer them on.
That’s because Erie Art Gallery is as much about creating community as it is about exhibiting creations.
Related article:
Pat Bywater: Art gallery aims to transform
January 21, 2018
“We need to get people downtown and we need to get feet on the street,” Ford said of efforts to revitalize Erie. “This is a way to activate unused space and get people interested.”
It’s also a way to take greater risks with the art, Ford believes. The non-profit model eases the pressure to sell art, opening the door to experimenting with lesser-known artists on the local scene as well as seeking submissions nationwide for themed exhibits.
Both missions attracted the attention of now former Erie City Councilman David Brennan, who Ford describes as instrumental in helping to get the gallery off the ground. Ford said Brennan, who is director of the Erie office of Bostwick Design Partnership, volunteered to tour potential gallery sites and also shared useful contacts.
Erie Art Gallery, 24 W. Eighth St., opens Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. with an exhibition of works by local artists that will remain on display through the end of February.
An exhibition with the theme of innovation is expected to be up in time for Erie Art Museum’s first gallery night of 2018 on March 9.
Gallery hours have yet to be determined and may vary.
For more information, call 450-9005.
“Any time we bring art into our community, it can be transformational,” Brennan said. “We need an active and vibrant 24-7 downtown where families and people want to live.” Ford’s gallery will be another amenity that makes downtown attractive and can “make a difference in how people view that neighborhood,” he said.
Brennan also sees Ford’s effort as a pilot project that might be used citywide to address vacant storefronts. “If we have a vacant storefront, why not do something? What could you lose?” Brennan asked. “If you are driving people to those storefronts, they see what’s around there” and maybe decide to visit again, relocate or start a business there or nearby, he said.
At this point, Ford, a software project manager, artist and former Erie City Council candidate, has with the help of some donors and volunteers fronted the money and completed the work necessary to ensure the gallery opens with an exhibit of local art on Saturday. He is seeking donations to pay for the completion and filing of non-profit status, which would allow the gallery to seek grants.