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Sylvia Inwod
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 11:55 am:   

I used to hang out at the Michigan
Gallery from 1986-87 & was part of a performance art
exhibit there in summer of 1987 curated by Cyndy Weeks
(I sang, of course...). Jerome Ferretti was certainly
part of that tribe & Don Baker.
Stephen Goodfellow
Posted on Wednesday, May 30, 2001 - 12:03 pm:   

Thanks Sylvia,

I also made the corrections you suggested:
http://kinweb.com/corridor/tribes/michigan_gallery_tribe/index.htm
and...
http://kinweb.com/corridor/tribes/willis_tribe/willis_1.htm
cyndy weeks
Posted on Sunday, July 08, 2001 - 12:53 pm:   

Hi Sylvia!
The name of the exhibition you were involved in was "Bomb my Boat". Funny you mentioned it, I was just wondering the other day how to contact some of the folks who were involved in that show. thanks, cyndy weeks
Gilda Snowden
Posted on Tuesday, August 14, 2001 - 8:26 am:   

I still have all of my mugs from the Michigan Gallery. The mugs were ceramic, although one was glass, with "michigan gallery" on them and the date. They cost $5 and allowed you to drink at the bar. I didnt realize how valuable they would be to me, as a record of that gallery! I think I have a complete set, but not sure......there may have been a few I missed

Gilda
Carl Kamulski
Posted on Thursday, September 20, 2001 - 10:10 pm:   

The "Mugs" at Michigan Gallery:

When we first started to get serious about the gallery; we decided that since we had "the bar" we should use it at receptions. The problem was that we didn't have a beer/wine license nor could we afford one, (much less the insurance.)

We decided to "skirt the law" by making clay mugs and selling them at the openings. When someone bought a mug for $6.00 we promised to keep it filled with beer or wine all night. (Beer and wine was a lot cheaper in 1980!) We felt that by doing this we really weren't selling beer or wine.

Roy Steyskal, Rick Brinn and I threw mugs, embossed them with the Michigan Gallery logo we were using for that edition and glazed them all alike....or almost alike. Usually we made about 200 for each opening. Stephen Goodfellow designed his own mug design Perhaps you might remember the : "I Refuse to Obey!" mug.

In all, we produced six clay editions plus one glass mug with a silkscreened logo for the "No Brand Art Show" that Nick Nagy, Brewster Luttrell and Stephen Goodfellow put together.

So, in all, there were seven different mugs!

After we decided that we couldn't afford the time required to make the mugs, we simply started selling beer and wine at openings and at Tuesday evenings "Drink and Draw" sessions. We ran "the bar" as a "Blind Pig" for more than 20 years and were just plain lucky. Several times we bought 24 hour licenses and insurance but it was too expensive. We only had one alternative! Besides, our crowd was the Art Community and their guests.....our members, artists and friends. We never had any trouble! We were still lucky!

Some thought we made a lot of money at openings.....not so. Our average cost at an opening for beer, wine, a band, bar staff, popcorn, etc. was about $1,500.00! Most of the time I had written at least $700.00-1,000.00 in checks before the openings ever started. Usually there was about $50.00 in the bank. Our income from the opening often just covered our expenses, sometimes we had $200.00-$300.00 extra but more often, I had to tap my personal account for several hundred dollars..... sometimes for a thousand or more if the opening went poorly! On Monday mornings I would race to the bank to beat the bad checks.

One amazing point: About half of the sales were made the night of the opening AFTER the the reception and after a lot of beers! In many ways, the bar helped to keep us alive for more than a quarter century!

Carl
Stephen Goodfellow
Posted on Friday, September 21, 2001 - 10:06 pm:   

Carl,

Thanks for your priceless recollections! I have placed them here:
http://www.corridortribe.com/tribes/michigan_gallery_tribe/kamulski_remembers.htm
Any additional rememberences - or photos - will always be appreciated.
John Nagridge
Posted on Friday, September 20, 2002 - 5:20 pm:   

I just discovered this forum. I'm so glad The Michigan Gallery isn't forgotten. I think (and talk about it) often. The times I hung out there (starting in 1986) were some of the most influential of my life. I met a lot of great people and did a lot of figure drawing there. It was a great setting to immerse myself into and I wish it were still around.

The shows were always interesting. One of my favorites was The Apocalypse Show. One of the pieces I never forgot was a TV playing an animated short called Cathedras. Years alter, I met its creater, Jeff Bloomer, through a mutual friend and he was gracious enough to sell me a videotape of it, as well as some of his other great animated works.

Two other favorites were the Micropointillism shows, one in 1988 and the other in 1992. But I may be a tad prejudiced since I was in them!

But all the shows were very interesting and different. They covered so many types of art that my mind was opened to all kinds of ideas of what art is all about. Michigan Gallery fulfilled the part where a gallery should question what one thinks is art and why.

Of course there were also the parties! The ones after the art openings and the ones after the Art crawls! The bands, the people, the drink -- they were the best parties around. Anyone I dragged to them had the time of their lives. I'd do anything to bring those days back.
dianabonner
Posted on Saturday, October 01, 2011 - 11:46 am:   

Fun place to hang out with other artists. Good shows, nice atmosphere

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