Arts and Entertainment

Headwaters Arts Gallery Committee shares a behind-the-scenes look at shows

April 10, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

The Headwaters Arts members show currently on display at the Alton Mill Arts Centre is titled “Nature’s Inspiration” and is on now until April 19.

The next show is “Land, Sea and Sky,” opening May 28 and running until June 29. Submissions for that show, have a deadline of Sunday, April 13.

What goes into making these and many other shows successful? 

To learn more about it all, the Citizen joined Deb Menken, chair of the Headwaters Arts Gallery Committee.

Definitively, there are five shows put on by Headwaters Arts members, for which the committee handles and adjudicates the submissions for each show. The committee then takes on hanging the artwork in the Headwaters Arts Gallery.

In addition, there are three member proposal shows a year and two shows open to all artists: the Fall Festival and the Holiday Season’s Artful Giving, which are also both fundraisers. The gallery committee is not responsible for the Fall Festival show.

“A lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into what it takes to make a show,” Menken began to explain. “A gallery committee of seven people volunteer, some since 2018.”

The committee members come from different artistic backgrounds, so the focus is diverse for the diverse membership of Headwaters Arts.

In the fall of 2024, they started thinking about the following year and each person on the committee came up with suggestions for themes for the five member shows and then three proposal spots, for which member artists can submit to stage their own shows. Artists propose their own show but they pay to use the gallery. 

“We send notices to interested artists for the three dates to propose,” Menken told us. “They essentially have the gallery for those individual months.”

Thirty-five percent is the Gallery’s commission on all the member shows. 

When a submission is made for a proposal show, the gallery committee looks to see if there is a fit for the gallery, namely concerned with quality and good fit, concerned about whether the pieces will sell.

Menken told us, “We often recommend to solo artists that they put together a group to support the costs and give variety to the show.”

The gallery has paid staff two days a week, leaving the artists to care for their exhibit over the other days and weekends. It’s a very good partnership, everyone agrees. In the fall, the program is set for the next year. At that point, they get in touch with artists to let them know themes and dates.

What was formerly the Noodle Gallery will open as a cafe soon. There will be staff and seating and gallery rental space at the back so that an artist’s opening can also be held at the cafe.

The planning for each show starts five to six weeks ahead for artists to submit. Once the submission date has passed, they basically go through the submissions; the gallery can accommodate 30 to 50 pieces.

“These days,” said Menken, “we’re getting over 70 submissions.

“Quality attracts quality,” she commented, “The quality of art that we’re showing now is very professional. Artists have left and come back and said the organization here is very professional. The whole thing presents as valuable as a place to present art.”

Asked about the price range, she demurred saying, “As to price I can’t even say there’s an average.”

She told a story to demonstrate. 

Two years ago, a couple walked into the Alton Mill and saw a painting by Emilia Perri that had been shown in an e-blast put out by the Mill.

The gentleman said, “I want that one.”

It was priced in the thousands, Menken related, and said, “And then they saw one of mine and bought that one too!”

Truth is there is something for every budget; something for everyone. Textile artists are recently becoming more involved, in this throw-away society, as Menken observed, with particular reference to the talented use of recycled clothing by Deja Vu in the Rare Threads gallery in the Mill. 

Back to the process of staging the art shows, once the committee has juried the show and selected their pieces, artists hear whether or not their submissions were accepted.

Monday is the drop-off day for the accepted pieces to be delivered for hanging. Then, they spend the rest of the day hanging the art in a way that makes each piece look great – a bit like putting a puzzle together, Menken outlined the necessary attention to the details. She told us that the strongest pieces are focal parts to catch the attendees’ eyes.

She said, “People come in and go – ‘Wow! This is the best show yet’.”

There are regular surprises, like the work from a textile artist that came in framed by frames she had taken out of an old church. So, the wood was old and the angles were odd and the pieces were beautiful and very differently presented.

Her advice: “If you want to distinguish yourself from other artists – presentation means everything.”

Every show sees new people who join Headwaters Arts throughout the year, while the membership goes from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 but if you join after August, that is good for the following year. Each show runs for four and a half weeks and there are 10 shows in all.

Headwaters Arts enjoys a partnership with Millcroft. 

This year marks Deb Menken’s seventh year with Headwaters Arts and as Gallery Chair since 2022

When asked what keeps her at it, she told the Citizen, “I started painting in 2015; sold my first painting on Facebook in 2017. Emilia [Perri, owner of Maggiolly’s] has mentored me and told me to join an art group.”

So, she joined Headwaters Arts and it has been very good for her. This is her way of giving back. Menken’s advice to rising artists is: to compare yourself to others is the worst thing you can do. You have to be you – nobody can do what you do – it’s your signature.

Deb Menken stands firm about the Alton Mill Arts Centre, saying, “It is such an asset to the community. The artists are one part of the shows and the art lovers are the other part of the equation. But to really appreciate it, it needs to be seen in person. Come and see the art – it’s good for your soul.”

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