By Marilyn Delk
The Anna Bier Gallery has been presenting the work of outstanding local and regional artists for many, many years, enabling our community to peruse, enjoy, and sometimes purchase beautiful art without traveling many miles and expending the big bucks re-quired to take in offerings available in big cities. New Anna Bier Gallery Director CeCelia Rice is currently asking your support as she works to build Gallery membership so that she can “continue to dazzle you” at upcoming shows that “spark even more community interest in the arts.”
Anna Bier Gallery memberships are available at many levels, beginning at $25 for a basic individual membership and advancing to $500 and beyond—whatever generous level benefactors choose to provide so that the Gallery’s vital work can continue. Even though the Gallery is under the umbrella of Darke County Center for the Arts, DCCA provides no funding supporting the space located within Henry St. Clair Memorial Hall, which is gen-erously donated to the arts by Greenville City Schools. This means that the entire opera-tion of this valuable arts space is funded by membership donations, sponsorships, and sales.
The Anna Bier Gallery hosts arts shows on a schedule in coordination with DCCA presentations at Memorial Hall; thus far the season has seen the award-winning vibrant nature photography of Indiana resident Peg Hoover, and the unforgettably warm and comforta-ble paintings of local artist Selena Burk in a show dubbed “All I Want is This Chair.” The Gallery also hosted its “First Annual Holiday Show,” which opened on December 1 and remains on display through January 31. The delightful Holiday Show drew an array of ap-pealing entries from a wide variety of artists, including some professionals and amateurs who had previously enjoyed their own exhibits in the space as well as others who have just begin to create art.
Yet to come in the Gallery are exhibits by John Kiser, whose eclectic career path has pro-vided the area resident with diverse subjects lovingly rendered in his paintings; his work will be on display from February 13 through March 20, with an opening reception planned to coincide with DCCA’s presentation of “Motones vs. Jerseys” on Saturday, Feb-ruary 26, which features a friendly competition between the music of Motown and songs made famous by groups such as the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys. Delightful art cre-ated by local elementary students will fill the Gallery space beginning March 26, fol-lowed by the annual high school show and an exhibit featuring the lovely evocative oil paintings of Greenville resident Jennifer Overholser.
Your membership donation can help make it possible for this beauty and wonder to con-tinue to fill the Anna Bier Gallery. In return for your investment, as a member you will earn a discount on purchases made at Granny’s Frame Shop, Dairy King, and Helen’s Flowers and Gifts, as well as the knowledge that you are positively contributing to the future of the arts in our community. Send your donation to the Anna Bier Gallery, P.O. Box 718, Greenville, Ohio 45331. To learn more or to become an exhibit sponsor, contact CeCelia Rice at CeCelia.Rice@DarkeCountyArts.org or by calling 937-564-7568.
The Anna Bier Gallery is open every Sunday from 12 noon until 2 p.m. and by appoint-ment. To access the Gallery on Sundays, visitors should enter through the side door near the parking lot (the Handicap Entrance), then proceed to the end of the hall to access the elevator or turn left to ascend the stairway leading to the Main Lobby, continuing up the stairs and past the Anna Bier Civic Room; proceed to the hallway leading to the Gallery; the entrance to the Anna Bier Gallery is on your left. To make an appointment to visit the Gallery at other times, contact the Gallery Director.