FORT SMITH -- After months of waiting, a new art gallery in a recently developed community space in downtown Fort Smith got to celebrate its public debut.
The District Galleries held an opening reception Oct. 9. It kicked off with Her Voice, an exposition showcasing the works of local female artists.
The reception was originally going to take place April 10, but it was postponed because of concerns regarding the covid-19 pandemic. Bridget Duncan, artist coordinator for the District Galleries, said that despite the delay, the event was "a really great show."
"I know a lot of artists have been waiting for it, and it's like a relief," Duncan said. "It's like something has finally come to fruition, and so that's a really great experience after waiting for so long. ... At first, I was unsure if it would be able to happen, or if this would be even the best year for it, but with the protocols in place, we still got a really good turnout."
The opening reception drew 140 people, according to Duncan. However, she noted that the District Galleries is mainly an event space, and because of covid-19 guidelines, it's only open to the public during events.
Her Voice will run in the gallery until the end of October, after which a new exhibition will take its place, Duncan said. Selected abstractions from the Bakery Collection are displayed in the gallery as well.
The District Galleries is the latest addition to the Bakery District in downtown Fort Smith. The district is owned by the Fort Smith-based company KMW Properties.
Tom Hanna, who oversees KMW Properties' portfolio of properties throughout the state, said the approximately 65,000-square-foot facility used to be the site of the Shipley Baking Co. The bakery operated from 1921 to 1996, during which it manufactured products such as fresh and frozen bread, rolls, cakes and pies, according to the Bakery District website.
"We purchased the facility in 2013," Hanna said. "It sat vacant for a couple of more years until we determined some concepts we wanted to try out, namely being the event space, and we opened it up informally as an event space for a while. And then we decided that we had better clean up the space a little bit because it was a pretty raggedy-looking old bakery, and we started the conversion process in probably late 2018 and had construction going well until this year."
Hanna said KMW Properties was the developer on the project, Studio 6 Architects was the architect, and Petree Construction was the general contractor. Sam Hanna, property manager for KMW Properties, added that Hanna Oil & Gas is behind KMW, with employees at the former supporting the Bakery District as well. Tom and Sam's father, Bill Hanna, is the president and CEO of Hanna Oil & Gas.
The Bakery District, Tom Hanna said, currently has Fort Smith Coffee Co., a coffee shop and roastery, and Bookish, a bookstore, as tenants, in addition to about 14,000 square feet of event space. Sam Hanna said two food trucks, Big Tasty Burger and See's Seafood, are also in the district, with KMW Properties "actively trying to find a third." A bocce ball court is one of the district's other amenities.
With the district, Sam Hanna said, KMW Properties wanted to change the way people looked at Fort Smith.
"We saw this as a huge change in the city and something that was really unique, and a way to get kind of a different type of crowd together and hanging out in the downtown area, and revitalizing the city," Sam Hanna said. "So ... what I thought it would be is sort of what it's become, and that's just a good place for people to gather, and a place for people not from Fort Smith to come, too, and see and think, well, we can hang with the rest of these cities that seem to be growing so quickly around us."
Tom Hanna said the company wanted to be able to provide a community space.
"We don't have a lot of open community spaces in Fort Smith, and we're trying to appeal to a demographic that doesn't necessarily get appealed to very often, kind of the younger demographic, the college-age demographic, which most industries kind of overlook within this region," Tom Hanna said.
Future plans for the Bakery District, according to Tom Hanna, include a bar that could be open by year's end, and construction to build out about 10,000 square feet of educational and administrative space for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, which is intended to start by the end of December.
HER VOICE
Although she knows numerous artists, Duncan, being one herself, said she does not know many who are female. She also said it is harder for female artists to get their start.
"And so, the first exhibition for this space, I wanted to make sure that this was a gallery meant for all genders, all races, just really, really open, all sorts of types of art, whether it be representational, whether it be abstract, whether it be street art," Duncan said. "I wanted to establish this place like that."
Her Voice, according to Duncan, is a way for the District Galleries to demonstrate that it is open to all kinds of artists and people. She also wanted to highlight both emerging and more established female artists whom she knows.
Duncan said the artwork on display in Her Voice includes architectural screenprints, portraiture, landscapes and still lifes.
"Basically, what I wanted to say was you don't have to just talk about female empowerment, whether you are a female who makes artwork," Duncan said. "You can also just be an artist and make portraits and still lifes and landscapes because you can basically make anything that can have its own empowerment."
"So all of these artists are female, but they're also very, very talented, so they're not in the exhibition because they're female. They're more in the exhibition because they're artists that have been, I think, a little bit under the radar, some of them. And some of them, of course, are emerging, but they still have this really unique talent, so I want to highlight that."
One artist Duncan selected for the exhibition is J.L. Medeiros, 34, of Fort Smith. Medeiros, an art teacher and adviser at the Future School of Fort Smith, said in an email that she considers herself a printmaker, installation artist and draftswoman. Much of her work overlaps different fields of art.
Medeiros has 10 pieces, which she said are mostly considered monoprints, on display in Her Voice. She was "very excited" to be able to show her work in the District Galleries' first exhibition.
"I love that they focused on local women artists, which are underrepresented in the art world," Medeiros said.
Medeiros said she was worried that the opening reception might get canceled, with it being a pleasant surprise that they were able to have the show and have so many people attend safely. She said she believes the District Galleries is going to make "a huge impact" for both the local art scene and for artists.
"This added venue provides us with a place to exhibit our work, which increases the chances for the public to see, experience, and purchase our art," Medeiros said. "It also acts as a springboard for upcoming artists; giving them a place to get their name out to the public eye."
Her Voice also features works by such artists as Casi Caton, Hannah Jeremiah, Kiaya Luper, Maggie Malloy, Lious Novicki, Katelyn Smith, Daleana Vaughan and Sharuq Yasin, according to the Bakery District website.
The two silos in the courtyard of the Bakery District feature a two-part mural painted by Hilda Palafox, a female artist from Mexico, as part of an art event in Fort Smith called the 2019 Unexpected.