“Honestly, this is probably one of the best openings we’ve ever been to…”

The following article originally appeared in the September 15-28, 2011 edition of 365ink Magazine, and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

Voices from the Warehouse District VII:
ReVolt ReEnergize Art in America

by Mike Ironside

“I really want to give you a job right now, but I’m holding off,” Voices co-director Gene Tully told me with a smile. It was completely understandable. It was less than 48 hours before the exhibit opening on Saturday, and the Voices Warehouse Gallery was a beehive of activity as team members and volunteers were hanging art, installing lighting, and making final preparations for the show.

That’s not all that unusual for the Dubuque County Fine Arts Society sponsored Voices exhibit, now in its seventh year in what is now known as the Historic Millwork District. The Wilmac warehouse at 10th and Jackson that has been home to the show is over 100 years old and always requires a great deal of work to clean, light, and generally prepare for the exhibition and reception.

Only this year, Tully, building owner Tim McNamara and the Voices team faced an extra challenge. Because of the overwhelming attendance at past events, the committee in working with City of Dubuque Fire Department officials had concerns about continuing to host the exhibit and massive opening reception in the traditional second floor warehouse gallery space. On top of that, the second floor was not compliant with ADA accessibility codes.

“After doing our art show up on the second floor for six years, it was just decided that because we had a first floor space available that could be made accessible, that it made sense to move it downstairs,” explained McNamara. “So we did and now we can roll a wheelchair or walk right into the gallery space without the use of an elevator.”

The challenge? Once the decision was made to move the entire exhibit to the raw, first-floor warehouse space, the Voices team had just 40 days before the opening to make it happen.

“Since the close of the show last October, we’ve envisioned the exhibition would be held upstairs,” said Voices co-director Geri Shafer. “When we determined that the show would be moving to this space, it was phenomenal the amount of work that we knew would have to happen to be able to prepare this space to get it ready for this opening Saturday night.”

“I was in a car driving to Tahoe (when I heard about the move) and my initial reaction was, ‘Whoa!’” said Voices marketing coordinator and events chair Ali Levasseur. Pondering the challenge she recalled thinking, “‘Okay … it’s a good thing we started organizing last November because we can pull it off.’ Because we had so much front time and planning, I knew we could do it.”

“Actually, my reaction was that this is probably going to put me into labor,” said Voices exhibition coordinator Holly Flood about moving the entire exhibit. “I was nine months pregnant at the time. And it did the next day!” Flood subsequently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Maggie. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh no. What are we … how is this going to happen?’” said Flood. Continued on “My second reaction, upon seeing the space was, ‘This is going to be even better.’ I knew right away that this was going to be a great space for the show and it really has turned out to be that.”

“I can’t emphasize enough the number of people who’ve been involved in this process who’ve made it possible to do something that seemed almost impossible when we walked through the door,” said Shafer, “but I think collectively, we walked through those front doors and without saying anything to one another, in retrospect we all thought, ‘We can do this.’ There was a silence and I think each one of us could see it happening in this space.”

“It’s an amazing amount of work in 40 days,” said Tully, who estimates he’s put in about 400 hours in that span of time. “It’s just great to see the community pull together and all these people coming down here and throwing down. It gives me chills to think about all the people who have given their time and talent to do this.” He added, “It does take a lot of beer to get this done.”

And getting it done they were. Just two days before the opening, what was a raw warehouse space less than six weeks prior, was looking an awful lot like an art gallery. “Every year in the past, I’ve looked around the Voices Gallery two days before the show and said, ‘we are not ready for an art show,” said McNamara. “This year, we are really close, two days out. This is as far along as we’ve been and to me it looks really good. Most of the art is up. Most of the lights are up. It’s just down to the final details now, so we’re in good shape.”

“I think that this space has actually, in the end, served a great purpose for us,” said Flood. “Upstairs is beautiful. It’s stunning, it’s enormous, but there’s just something about having all of the artwork in one room. I think down here it’s very cohesive. When we walked into this I know that some people were a little nervous, ‘How are we going to do this?’ But honestly, the first thing I thought of was, ‘This will work great.’ It’s such a great space and I think now that all the artwork has come together in here it’s just really brought a whole new life to the Voices show.”

Shafer echoes Flood’s sentiment. “In many ways, and I’m not taking anything away from the second floor, but on the first floor it’s about the art, because when you walk through those front doors that’s what you see immediately,” said Shafer. “Upstairs, we had the east wing and the west wing. Here, you’re just surrounded by the art and that’s what Voices is about.”

The warehouse exhibit also benefits from the new Millwork District streetscape, a major renovation and investment project by the City of Dubuque. “It’s nice. Our front door opens up right onto a brand new sidewalk and street,” McNamara notes. Now, because we’re on the first floor we’re going to set up tables and chairs outside and have live music and be able to enjoy the outdoor space as well, which you couldn’t do when we were on the second floor. It was a gravel alley out there. Now we’ve got historic paving brick and nice sidewalks.” In a sense, the Voices show has come full circle, now benefiting from Millwork District revitalization efforts first inspired by the Voices warehouse exhibit.

With the new exhibit just hours from opening the Voices team was clearly anticipating the reaction from the community. “Especially in these last two weeks as we’ve seen artwork getting installed and everything getting painted and cleaned up and put together, all of a sudden this transformation has just blown my mind,” admits Flood. “I almost think that the warehouse aspect is in the background and it has become an art gallery, first and foremost, which has been a really neat thing to experience.”

“I’m just so excited,” said Shafer anticipating the opening. “The quality of the art, the exhibition space I think is going to be really exciting for a lot of people in this community. It really shows what can happen. Don’t tell us that we can’t do something, because we did it and we’re doing it!”

“I think this is going to be a really exciting show,” said Flood. “I think we’re just going to blow people’s minds with this. I really do. Every time I walk in this front entrance, it’s a ‘wow’ factor for me. I’m feeling really good about this. We’ve had such a great team and volunteers and people helping with construction, and the floors, and painting and doing all this stuff … this could never have come together without the help of all of the Voices team and all the other volunteers and workers. I’m really appreciative of all the help that we’ve had.” McNamara agreed. “It’s a lot of volunteers and a lot of generous contributors that help fund it. We couldn’t have done it without them,” he said.

Fantastically Successful Opening Reception!

In the end, all the hard work and investment paid off. With little time to spare, the Voices from the Warehouse District VII team presented Revolt: ReEnergize Art in America!, opening the exhibit to the public Saturday, September 10. Thirteen artists, from local to national and even international showed work in the main exhibit, including the Minneapolis-based Rogue Citizen collective who created a collaborative painting during the opening. Ten more artists presented a special Voices Echo 9/11 tribute to the victims and heroes on the tenth anniversary of that tragic day.

Tully estimates attendance at the September 10 opening to be between 900 and 1000 people over the course of the evening. “I think it was fantastic,” said Flood. “This is above and beyond what any of us had anticipated. I think this is one of our best turnouts. I’ve heard only positive feedback from people tonight. Not just positive, but beyond.”

Reaction to both the new space and the art exhibit itself were overwhelmingly positive. Mark Wahlert, executive director of the Dubuque Museum of Art said, “Not having seen this (space), I know how much work they put in to make this happen, but I actually like this location better than upstairs. I think the space and the light and the openness is much better.”

Jan Stoffel, arts and cultural affairs coordinator for the City of Dubuque agreed: “I like this space because it seems like it’s more inclusive. I like the fact that you have the outdoors, which you can see, and all of the artists are visible when you walk into the center of the room. It just seems much more inclusive than the other space. The show is very nice. I like the balance between local artists and artists from outside of the city.”

Chris Wand, architect, community organizer, and current board president of the Dubuque Museum of Art was also impressed by the space and connection to the new streetscape. “I thought that it was really good that the event actually spilled out into the street,” said Wand. “Thankfully, the City has done the streetscape, but it gave you a little bit of an entrance, it gave you an opening to the opening. The entrance became part of the event. I thought that was good.”

Sculptor, metalworker and Voices VII exhibiting artist Jim Avery has had a metalwork studio in the warehouse district for five years. Avery is happy with the progress of the streetscape and the potential for Millwork District revitalization. “I’m excited about it. I’m thinking that it’s turning out pretty cool so far,” he said of the work on the streetscape. “I think it’s going to be pretty awesome. We get some people living and working down here I think it’s going to be pretty cool.” Avery himself has contributed work toward the new streetscape. “Gene Tully and I did some of the benches, waste receptacles, and bike racks, so we’re excited and glad to be a part of it.”

Visiting artists seemed impressed by both the warehouse gallery space and the Millwork District, as well as the overall exhibit. Tim Roberts, architect, painter, and exhibiting artist from Miami, Florida came to exhibit this year through his friend, Dubuque native and Miami resident, Kris Belding, an exhibiting artist from last year.

“As an architect, the warehouse space is very alluring to me. I want to live in a warehouse space,” said Roberts. “I actually want to live in a warehouse space more now because one small space would be where I live and the rest would be where I paint. I spend my time painting in my condo now. With wood floors and granite counter tops, I spend more time cleaning than painting. So I would love to have a space where I could just go wild and let the paint fall where it may and hopefully some if it hits the canvas. I think the space is phenomenal. … I think what has been pulled off here is amazing.”

New York-based pop artist and Voices exhibitor Camomile Hixon was surprised not only by the raw space of the warehouse district, but also the vibrancy of the Voices art exhibit. “I’m very impressed,” said Hixon who created the oversized flowers decorating the entrance to the gallery. “For example, just a few months ago, I was at Art Basel in Basel, Switzerland and this is the place that purports itself as THE most cutting edge contemporary art and it has nothing on what I’ve seen in this warehouse. I love so much of what I see. I love the Cerberus (Jessica Teckemeyer’s sculpture “Planes of Existence”) especially. I love this fellow’s ball (Avery’s hanging sculpture). He’s made that of chrome and those are found materials – chrome over metal. It’s recycling, it’s very urban, it feels like it could be Berlin, but it’s Dubuque, Iowa and I love it.” In addition to her flowers, Hixon’s installation included a piece utilizing her “Missing Unicorn” posters, some of which where put up around town in advance to promote the Voices show but were ultimately stolen, undoubtedly because they are just fun.

“That’s always what happens,” she said. “When I first put them up – in Manhattan my friends and I put up about 2,000 posters – and Bloomberg is so uptight, he doesn’t like anything. This is performance art for the people by the people, lifting people up, letting them see art, people who would never appreciate art because they just don’t think of it. I wanted to make businessmen to think about unicorns, just for a few seconds on the subway. That was my initial goal for this project of putting up posters. Of course, people stole them, took them, but luckily they called the number because I think I’m up to 18,000 phone calls on the “Unicorn Hotline.” I hope you call.”

Hixon’s “Missing Unicorn” has become an international phenomenon. “It’s worldwide now,” she said. “All the states in the union have responded, called and left messages, sent in photographs, sightings … crazy stuff. And then the CBC, the Canadian Broadcast Centre (Canada’s version of NPR), interviewed me and they replayed this interview nationally so all these people – Manitoba, crazy ones from Nova Scotia, sightings, this woman in Ottawa complaining that the unicorn has been eating her lettuces and she’s going to call the authorities unless I go up there and claim this animal – so it gets very interesting. The project is really helping people to think about what they might be missing and to go after it. That’s really what I’m doing with that.”

Also having fun were Shawn Dalsen, Eric Mattheis, Matt McGorry, and Matt Wells, the painting collective known as Rogue Citizen who spent about four hours collaborating on a canvas during the opening while fascinated guests watched.

Honestly, this is probably one of the best openings we’ve ever been to,” said Mattheis. “Especially the past few openings we’ve been to for art events we’ve done, there hasn’t been as much energy as there has been here. A lot of people here have been super friendly, the directors and everyone involved here have constantly asking us if we’re okay, if we need something. Everyone just wants to make sure we feel comfortable and it makes me feel absolutely wonderful.”

Former security guards at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the four united as Rogue Citizen with a “nothing is sacred” approach to collaboration. “We had been admiring some of the other collectives, not only in the area but in the Midwest and thought to ourselves, ‘We could do that. It would be really fun to do that.’ So we got together, formed the Rogue Citizen and started painting live at different music events. We had our first formal gallery show two years ago and since then I think we’ve done over two- to three-dozen different live painting events, almost a dozen different formal gallery openings. It’s been quite a busy two years but we work well together and we’re good friends.”

Despite participating in a variety of art events over the past couple years, Mattheis was impressed by both the warehouse gallery and the Voices exhibit. “I love the space. We came in yesterday so we were able to come in and preview the show as it was getting up,” he said. “What really surprises me is I’ve never been to Dubuque, I never really thought this would be a place to have a welcoming and fluent, beautiful art scene but this, honestly, this show almost puts Minneapolis to shame in some ways. And we throw some great shows in Minneapolis, but this space here is beautiful, downtown is beautiful, this warehouse is perfect for a show like this, and people are dedicated here. They’re really dedicated to putting the money and time together to throw an event like this and I’m envious. We need energy like that in Minneapolis.”

Near the end of the night, the focus of much of that energy, Gene Tully, was basking in the glow of the successful opening. “I feel great,” he said. “What a fabulous opportunity to share art. I’m so happy the community turned out and supported this. The City Council, the Mayor, the City Manager all coming in here … all these people walking in going, ‘I love this space.’ It was so much collective energy.”

Holly Flood reflected on the evening’s success in light of the ongoing revitalization of the Millwork District, in which Voices has played an ongoing role. “People have actually mentioned as they came in tonight, with this space in particular, having this kind of a grand entrance on the first floor with the new street, it’s just sort of transformed, not only what we’ve done in here but you really see what’s happening with the whole district down here,” she said, “and I think this is just sort of the beginning of it. It’s been a very, very exciting night in that sense.”

Tim McNamara, who’s provided the incredible warehouse spaces for all seven of the Voices shows sees this year’s success as another step toward a more vibrant Millwork District. “The room that we’re in here will show people that it doesn’t matter if you’re on second floor or first floor, or my building or his building. These spaces are all really appealing and inviting,” he observed. “Just the scale of the space allows you to do a lot and that’s the case in all these buildings and that will be the case when they become office space or residential space.”

Still, McNamara sees the important role Voices, and the arts in general, have played and will continue to play in a vibrant Millwork District. “We don’t want it to end here. We want it to keep going,” he said. “We want to try and find venues for arts of all kinds in the neighborhood, not just in this building, but in all the buildings. We’re talking to a number of artists to develop venues and spaces for all different kinds of art, from performance, teaching, to gallery space. We want to do all these things.”

Come see what all the buzz is about. The Dubuque County Fine Arts Society’s Voices From The Warehouse District VII: ReVolt, ReEnergize Art In America! is on display through October 7, 2011 in the new 15,000 square foot first floor gallery in the warehouse at 1000 Jackson Street. For more information, including artists’ bios and statements, visit www.voicesgallery.org. Find Voices on Twitter at twitter.com/voicesdubuque or on Facebook at facebook.com/voicesgallery.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.