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When I first started coming to Syllavethy Gallery in 1998 as a model, there was a Duncan Regher exhibition on. The gallery smelled warm and old… a summer’s day, with shafts of light breaking through the skylights and highlighting selective areas of glowing colour on the paintings. The work looked beautiful, but the gallery was empty. Very few people, even locals in the area, experienced this intensity of colour or the beauty of the space they resided in. Lack of interest is one of the drawbacks of a gallery in the back of beyond.

Over the years to follow, my love for the space as a gallery grew, however the numbers of visitors remained low, and the number of exhibitions, few.

What would I do if I had a gallery like this to run.
About six months ago Mike asked, what would I do if I had a gallery like this to run. The question triggered off a tidal wave of ideas, some far fetched involving fireworks and trapeze artists, some more practical, like increasing the insulation, and improving winter heating conditions in the gallery. For ages we talked about this - the possibilities and the potential pitfalls. It seems that to successfully run a gallery in the middle of no-where is a very formidable task.

Later on that year, I was given the opportunity to work full time at the gallery, on a work placement scheme, running the I.T. aspects of the gallery. This included creating a virtual gallery on the Internet to show work by artist’s who have affiliations with the Gallery. Also to let people know about the gallery and its story, classes we run, and events. Do visit our website at http://www.syllavethy.com

My first chance at running a group exhibition came in November 2001, involving 22 artists showing at the gallery. The opening was a great success, with over 200 in attendance, live music, tasty food, and of course loads of wine! There was an enormous range in styles, with everything from watercolour landscapes, to intensely colourful abstract work as well as sculpture.

The idea originally came about after talking to a group of artists who attend the weekly life drawing classes, although they are all artists in their own right with very different styles. They were very excited about the possibility of holding regular exhibitions here, and their work sold very well.

The gallery will have to be built up gradually, over a few years, but we plan to develop the existing classes to encompass all types of skills, not just watercolour and life drawing, but sculpture, textiles, printmaking, oils and anything else people want to participate in. We want to hold activity weeks in the summer for the school children in the area, with artists teaching them about new mediums, and different ways of playing with paint. We are also thinking of including more arts based activities too, like poetry readings, music recitals and possible small scale theatre productions, or concerts.

Our goal is to create a centre for art as well as a place to show work. We intend to increase the number of exhibitions held during a year from 2 to 9, as of next year, creating a more dynamic and exciting atmosphere in the gallery.

So Let Your Friends Know We Exist, and encourage everyone who enjoys art or music or learning new and exciting things, to come and check us out.

Remeber to visit our website at www.syllavethy.com