Castleton Galleries Reimagine Art Shows During COVID-19
Walking around historic Downtown Rutland, it’s hard to miss the Castleton University Bank Gallery. Located in the former Lake Sunapee Bank on the corner of Merchants Row and Center Street, the gallery has a strong presence. From the marble façade to the large, sweeping windows – which provide people passing by a peek into that month’s show – the gallery commands attention.
Castleton University Bank Gallery displays works of art from artists in the local community, across Vermont, around the country, and all over the world. It’s welcomed photographers, sculptors and mixed media artists, painters, and more. The gallery hasn’t hosted an in-person show since early 2020 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, but gallery staff have found innovative ways to share art in the meantime.
Castleton University Bank Gallery has been hosting virtual exhibits, uploading works online and on social media from Castleton students, and artists including Kelly Knight, Mallory Pearson, Sarah Wilson, and Amy Parrish. Castleton University Bank Gallery has also been a stop in the Rutland Art Ramble, a collaboration between organizations dedicated to fostering the arts and artists throughout Downtown Rutland. The gallery’s windows have displayed works of art by different artists throughout the past year. Currently on display are works from Kelly Knight, a Providence, Rhode Island-based visual artist whose work explores themes of the feminine in harmony or disharmony with nature, feminine identity and actualization, and the interconnected and symbiotic relationships between human and nonhuman organisms.
Castleton’s Oliver Schemm, associate professor and gallery director, was one of the local artists who participated in the Rutland Art Ramble, having his works displayed alongside a plethora of other artists.
Schemm also found other ways to make art during the pandemic, including 77Art’s mural event, where he painted a mural inside Roots the Restaurant while people were enjoying dinner.
The Christine Price Gallery, Castleton’s on-campus art gallery, has also found creative ways to display art, including an ongoing installation of science murals the Art department created for the Science department.