Four years ago, the owner of the building on the southwest corner of the Square walked into Tim Meyers’ CPA office, three doors down, and asked if he needed more storage room.
He didn’t, but Tim and his spouse, Trish Meyers, had been looking for a place to display the work of an artist friend of theirs.
That was the catalyst for the creation of Gallery Three, named for its three owners — Trish Meyers, her son, Mark, and Reggie Cornell, the artist whose work the Meyers wanted to display.
Their purpose:
“To bring art to the community, and the community to art,” Trish said.
Trish gave a program about the inception of Gallery Three last Friday to members of the United Methodist Women in the Backroom of Clinton UMC.
The Meyers, who bought the corner building for the gallery, literally live in its back room — an apartment in back, downsizing from the home where they raised five children. To create the gallery, they put up peg boards and “hung all the art we could find,” Trish said.
The space had been a surplus store five years ago, and people still come in and look around, surprised, Trish said. Instead of dusty merchandise, they see a collection of colorful landscapes— oil, acrylic and watercolors — and other fine art.
“It’s all Missouri art,” Trish said. “The farthest we have is from artists who live in Smithville and St. Charles.”
In the summer, the gallery draws more people from out of town than locals, Trish said — the guest book holds signatures from visitors all over the Midwest, and the country. Trish opens the gallery at 11 a.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and the gallery participates in all the Main Street events—Wine Stroll, Quilt Walk, etc. — and makes prints of artwork to sell during sidewalk sales.
Gallery Three also holds art classes — Susan Sanders, who has a studio in Clinton, is holding a two-part class this month. Every Wednesday, people are invited to bring an art project they are working on and sit around the table in back and visit while they work.
Artists pay five dollars a month to have a piece displayed at Gallery Three, Trish said, and pay a commission when the work is sold. Anyone with a connection to Missouri is eligible to have arts exhibited at the gallery, she said.
It’s hard to hang art on their apartment walls, Trish said, so the back wall of the gallery holds the Meyers’ art collection. Trish’s art took the form of sketches of her children, showing what they were doing, in letters to her mother, which her mother saved and gave back to her.
Gallery Three, at 137 S. Washington, welcomes volunteers interested in becoming part of the local art community, including people pursuing art as a “third age” passion. A former physical education teacher, Reggie Cornell became passionate about art when she retired, Trish said, painting all day and sometimes into the night.
Gallery Three is hosting this year’s Ike Parker Memorial Art Show, June 30 and July 1, at the Delozier Building, 203 W. Franklin. The judged show has three divisions — professional, amateur and high school —with cash prizes in five categories: photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and mixed media — plus best of show and people’s choice. Entry forms are available at Gallery Three or online.
Gallery Three is looking for volunteers to move pegboards down the street and set up for the Ike Parker Show during Olde Glory Days. Parker was a regional artist who recorded local landmarks in Henry County and captured scenes of rural life and farming in earlier times. This is the 26th year of the Ike Parker Memorial Art Show, which is free to the public.
This is the 30th year for Olde Glory Days, Clinton’s Independence Day celebration on the Square. Held on the weekend closest to the Fourth of July, this year’s OGD is Thursday, June 29, through Sunday, July 2, and includes the Grand Parade at 10 a.m. Saturday, free outdoor concerts on the courthouse lawn Friday and Saturday evenings and fireworks on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. OGD also has free entertainment on the courthouse lawn, plus a puppet show at the Henry County Museum annex and a stage production at Heartland Community Theatre, both on July 1. A carnival and food vendors set up on the streets around the Square . Go to Olde Glory Days Facebook for more information.
Check the Gallery Three Facebook for announcements about classes and events.
