A UKIAH ROUNDUP

Tonight was the long-awaited opening of an artist's cooperative gallery in downtown Ukiah. It got a lot of local press....and when I showed up right after work at 5 pm, in the pouring rain, there was absolutely no room for another person to enter the (attractive, well-lit and well-hung) space! Stu and I went home, hung out for an hour, and went back...this time we made it in the door but it was too crowded and noisy to look at art or to talk to anybody! So we went across to the Brewpub for dinner and it was 5 minutes past the opening's closing time when we walked back down the street, and it was still too crowded!

Now, I'm not sure exactly what to call this place; the signs all say Art Center Ukiah, but now it seems to have morphed, between paint job/signage and actually opening, into something called The Corner Gallery...anyhow, here is the skinny on art stuff, with a review of the show to follow next week sometime:

Beginning in April, Ukiah will be doing First Fridays, with these galleries open from 5 pm to 8 pm. Most of them are mostly crafts (ceramics) but hopefully will have other media represented, and the Grace Hudson Museum will also be participating. The full list is:

CORNER GALLERY
CINNABAR CERAMICS
GRACE HUDSON MUSEUM
HOYMAN-BROWE STUDIO
ONE EARTH GALLERY
T.B. GREENE GALLERY

Given the difficulties I've noted with past galleries not really staying open more than two years (the one at the community college doesn't count, as it is not a commercial enterprise), I'm very curious to see how this scene develops....