A Tiny Box,Big Dreams: The Lamasco Microgallery as a Nontraditional Venue for Art & Community Engagement

Introduction

Nestled on an unassuming street, amidst the bustle of everyday life, lies a quiet revolution. The Lamasco Microgallery thrives in a world beyond in Evansville, Indiana ¹ at the heart of the Lamasco Neighborhood. Founded in 2023, the Lamasco Microgallery is a grassroots initiative to bring art exhibitions to the community. The dimensions of the exhibition space are 20.75″L × 10″H × 5.5″W, and is used to exhibit local, regional, and international artists in a space that fosters inclusion while removing institutional barriers. Lamasco Microgallery’s mission is rooted in the transformative power of visual experience that adds value to individual and collective perspectives. Furthermore, it emphasizes that access to the fine arts can help people grow into more thoughtful and empathetic citizens of their community.

Through curated exhibitions, the microgallery aims to enrich individual and collective perspectives. Openness underpins its mission: breaking down institutional barriers and fostering community connections through art. Community receptions—like a winter gathering warmed by chili and video jumbotron programming—with partners such as Renew Church exemplify this relationship. This article, focusing on Lamasco’s inaugural year, dives into its conception and philosophy, using its community reception as a case study. By illuminating how this diminutive space wields public philosophy to impact its community, it aims to inspire GLAMR (galleries, libraries, archives, museums, and records) professionals to reimagine engagement beyond traditional venues. Lamasco Microgallery’s story proves that small spaces, fueled by bold vision, can become catalysts for social connection and philosophical exploration, demonstrating a nontraditional path for GLAMR work to make a profound mark on its local landscape.

Funding from Love Lamasco Action Grant

In 2022, the Lamasco Neighborhood Association relaunched after a COVID hiatus. Meeting monthly at the EVPL West Library, community members gathered for pizza, snacks, and drinks to reimagine the Lamasco neighborhood. Approximately six months of discussions led to the formation of Love Lamasco. Love Lamasco is a coalition among the Lamasco Neighborhood Association, Renew Church, ² and residents. The mission of Love Lamasco is:

to promote friendship, goodwill, and unity among persons who live in the neighborhood; to promote the correction of any neighborhood problems brought to the attention of the Association by its members; to prevent crime; to promote traffic safety; and to promote the betterment of the neighborhood and the well-being of the persons who live in the neighborhood. ³

The coalition is more than an extension of the neighborhood association; Love Lamasco funds community engagement surveys and grant opportunities to empower individual residents to create change for the community as a whole. The grants are called Love Lamasco Action Grants. Applicants propose an idea or dream to the Love Lamasco grant-review committee. If the resident’s vision reflects the community’s collective interest, the resident receives between $250 and $1,000 to make the goal a reality. ⁴ With interest residing in local park rehabilitation and cultural access, the projects funded for the 2023 cycle included new picnic tables for the parks, dog waste stations throughout the neighborhood, nutrition opportunities for neighbors, signage indicating Independence Historic District, a music festival, and the Lamasco Microgallery. ⁵

While the microgallery was conceptualized for the Lamasco neighborhood, it serves the greater Evansville community by exhibiting all art forms at all hours, without operational staffing constraints. To elaborate, in Evansville, the mission statements and collecting strategies of the museums and other gallery venues restrict access to non-local or non-traditional art mediums, such as crafts such as puppetry, and installation or relational art, which creates the need for a less restrictive space for more artistic freedom. Also problematic are the hours of operation for museums in Evansville. Few institutions offer regular evening hours, and many are closed on Sundays. The Lamasco Microgallery offers a micro solution to these challenges of mediums and access.

This spirit of access and inclusion—of art types and ultimately audiences—reflects the sentiments of Daniel Weiss, museologist and former CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who noted, “The museum is at its best a vital community resource in service to the public and held in its trust.” ⁶ Whether a giant fortress like the Metropolitan or a small rectangular space outside one’s home, it is essential to revolutionize these spaces to meet the needs and demands of the community because they are required to adapt, adjust, and respond to the realities of the public. ⁷ These spaces are more than the displayed artwork; they also reflect the people they serve.

Lamasco Microgallery Operations

The removal of barriers has fostered popularity of the microgallery such that it is slated for exhibition until 2026. In addition, a waiting list of interested artists has been instituted. ⁸ The recruitment of artists has been organic and predominantly arranged through digital exchanges through the Lamasco Microgallery’s Instagram page. While this process seems unorthodox, the goal of the space is to offer a diverse art experience, which includes accepting artists with traditional and nontraditional backgrounds regarding artistic training. The Lamasco Microgallery embodies artist Eva Hesse’s philosophical ideology that “art is life. . . [it is] a total person giving a contribution,” ⁹ and any interested artist with an idea and willingness to “give a contribution” is welcome to participate at the microgallery. Whether traditionally trained or self-trained, Hesse states there is more to the art-making process than the standardized process taught at the university, and the microgallery endorses this idea. ¹⁰ In this form, the most significant barrier to exhibiting at the microgallery is waiting for an exhibition opening.

When an artist exhibits in the microgallery, their work is on display for fifteen weeks, with one week for installation and deinstallation. The artist must also work with the microgallery director to host a community reception where neighbors and the Evansville community members gather at the microgallery to celebrate the installation and learn about the artist. The microgallery requires artists to submit a headshot, artist biography, artist statement or text about the exhibition, an exhibition checklist or inventory of the pieces on display, and to denote if any works are for sale. The Lamasco Microgallery takes no commission, and all sales are conducted between the artist and the visitor after the exhibition. While these processes are standard in a traditional museum or gallery venue, the microgallery, collaborating with residents and artists, is working toward creating a community curator program.

This program has been proposed to offer another layer of inclusive practice because members in the area, regardless of academic pedigree or experience, are welcome to participate in learning about curatorial and gallery practice. ¹¹ As we work toward building this program, artists can sign a Deed of Gift form and donate their work to the formation of the Lamasco Microgallery permanent collection. As the permanent collection grows, community curators will create annual thematic retrospective exhibitions with the donated artworks. Additionally, the Lamasco Microgallery has PastPerfect software, and community curators can access database training. ¹² Since the microgallery is in its first year of conception, further conversations and collecting are needed before setting a launch date. Nonetheless, working with the local and creative community to structure and achieve this goal exemplifies this space’s potential impact.

When evaluating the physical microgallery, it is imperative to redefine the space for the viewer and to free it from the traditional norms as much as possible. Specifically, traditional museums and cultural institutions that specialize in exhibiting art or artifacts are often viewed as intimidating places because there is a perception that one needs to understand the material on display before entering or must come from the higher classes of society. ¹³ While cultural institutions strive to be more inclusive, author Tony Bennett illustrates in his book, The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics that the museum echoes the theories of philosophers Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci. ¹⁴ In their writings, Foucault and Gramsci offer interpretations of governmental assemblages and control over society. According to Bennett, museums assimilate the government because the people in authoritative roles determine who in society has the “power/knowledge” privileges in accessing the information and visual displays offered in an exhibition. ¹⁵

As a result, Bennett proposes that this complex system aligns with Foucault’s carceral archipelago ideology or that the situating of a visitor in a museum takes the form of incarceration. ¹⁶ To break barriers of incarceration, the microgallery is in an open-air environment that offers bystanders the choice to interact with the display and is positioned where neither the neighbor nor its owner can see who is visiting. While this affects visitation numbers, the dignity and respect of the viewer are of the highest priority. To make the visiting experience more comfortable, the microgallery is equipped with solar-powered lighting to ensure evening visual access as visitors walk by. There is free parking along the gallery’s street, which is located off the main thoroughfare of the neighborhood. If transportation is problematic, the microgallery is located one block from a METS (Metropolitan Evansville Transit System) bus station. If unable to physically see the space, all content is accessible online. ¹⁷ Furthermore, the microgallery is communicating with Love Lamasco regarding seating options.

Case Study: Nina Oberlin’s The Light Princess

The first exhibition at the Lamasco Microgallery was artist Nina Oberlin’s The Light Princess (Figure 1). Nina is from Oregon and owns and operates Shadow Streak Productions, an animation studio that brings community ideas to life through puppetry. ¹⁸ The exhibition is a two-part marionette adaptation of Scottish author George MacDonald’s mythical stories inspired by the medieval period. The hand-carved princess, knight, castle, and additional features took the artist four months to create. Officially opened on October 27, 2023, the community reception was held on Wednesday, November 1, 2023, from 6:00 to 7:00 PM CST (Figure 2).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Nina Oberlin’s exhibition The Light Princess on October 27, 2023. Photo by Author.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 2.

Advertisement for Nina Oberlin’s community reception. Photo and graphic by Author.

Approximately twenty-five people came to the community reception. Since the artist was non-local, two pre-recorded videos with a ten-foot jumbotron that was connected to a projector and laptop were shared with attendees. The first video was approximately ten minutes and was a behind-the-scenes look into how each puppet and the set was made. The second video was a twelve-minute artist interview, in which Nina shared her creative process and explained the installation. Throughout the evening, chili, hot cocoa, water, and candy were served (Figure 3). ¹⁹ The demographics consisted of Lamasco neighbors and four people from outside the neighborhood. The age range was from three to sixty-five, with the majority being millennials (born between 1981 and 1996). ²⁰

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 3.

Community reception on November 1, 2023. Renew Church generously provided food, beverages, projector, and jumbotron. Photo by Author.

When reflecting on the community reception, it was challenging to break away from the binary thinking of “success or failure.” The purpose of the community reception and the microgallery is to create a space removed from the traditional museum or gallery environment and to foster community engagement by unifying and connecting people through the visual arts. Therefore, traditional museum survey methods of calculations and measurements to meet a binary metric like success or failure are unhelpful, misleading, and counterintuitive. ²¹ The community receptions or the microgallery only fail when the community no longer sees it as a vital resource. Nonetheless, the most significant takeaways were listening and observing the audience interact with Nina’s videos.

As the first video played on the jumbotron, many audience members were unaware that the artist created each piece in the microgallery. The general perception of the group was that each piece was mass-produced and then painted by the artist. While these comments could irritate some artists or creative professionals, it is essential to maintain a safe environment for community members to ask any questions or allow them to be amazed and enjoy the artist’s creativity without condescension. During the second video, many audience members responded to Nina’s physical look. Attendees found her relatable because the tattoo, punk rock artist resembled them. This is imperative because removing institutionalized barriers includes more than the physical space itself. Evidence of the removal of institutional access comes from the Field Museum where the 2023 exhibition, Changing Face of Science highlighted its Curator of Fossil Reptiles, Dr. Jingmai O’Connor. ²² O’Connor’s punk rock appearance challenges the status quo of what a scientist is supposed to look like. Like Dr. O’Conner, Lamasco Gallery artist Nina Oberlin defies stereotypes of what a successful artist looks like (Figure 4).

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 4.

Close up of Nina Oberlin and Tory Schendel-Vyvoda from artist interview video on November 1, 2023. Screenshot by Author.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Lamasco Microgallery was established in 2023 as a grassroots initiative to serve the Lamasco neighborhood as the primary audience and greater Evansville as the secondary. The gallery aims to create a less-restrictive environment in which artists and viewers are emancipated from traditional museum or gallery perceptions and confinements. This article discusses the microgallery’s conception and philosophy while offering a synopsis of the first exhibition and community reception. By highlighting these topics, the microgallery demonstrates how a small rectangular space can serve as a nontraditional venue to foster community engagement through art and philosophy. It is essential to promote the diversity of environments in which public philosophy can emerge.

Furthermore, the question of sustainability is worth noting. This space was created because of a shared community vision to bring fine art to the Westside of Evansville. The Lamasco Microgallery’s director serves as the collection’s caretaker and invests family earnings into the collection and space. Since the microgallery is indeed micro, the fiduciary responsibility is no more than one thousand dollars annually. While some would be unable to make this contribution, as long as the work is fun and engaging and the community wants the space, it will remain.

As Joseph Beuys, the artist-philosopher, reminds us, every person has the right to unrestricted access to the fine arts. ²³ For when the collective partakes in the art process, society can truly transform, reflected not by the few, but by the whole. ²⁴ The Lamasco Microgallery offers a microcosm of this possibility, empowering residents to experience diverse perspectives through the human visual experience. In stripping away intimidation and creating safe spaces for artistic expression, it cultivates a deeper level of inclusivity, one that whispers beyond the confines of a tiny box and into the very soul of the Lamasco community. ²⁵