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Thanks to a partnership with John J. Howard Real Estate, Art Center East galleries are open to the public and admission is always free.

Lemuria Kyanite and Sterling Silver Necklace by Crystal Collier

      Art Center East (ACE) is excited to announce the opening of its Sixth Annual Fiber Arts and Jewelry Exhibit, Fiber Focused on Color, in the Co-Op Gallery featuring work from Northeast Oregon fiber and jewelry artists. The community is invited to attend a free opening reception on Friday, February 4, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. At the reception, local cottage bakery Teahouse will offer a variety of whole-grain baked goods for purchase as well as a curated selection of loose leaf teas for sampling. The exhibit will run February 4 through March 26, 2022. 

     ACE’s annual fiber arts and jewelry exhibit creates a platform for this underrepresented branch of the visual arts. The exhibit’s theme, Fiber Focused on Color, challenged artists to relate their artwork to one or more of the ten Pantone colors in the 2022 Spring and Summer New York Fashion Palette. The ten-color palette will be displayed in the Co-Op Gallery to help visitors discover the color connection within each artwork. “A fun theme in common brings fiber artists and jewelers in the community together,” said ACE Gallery Director Jennifer Durr.

     A beautiful quilt, created and donated by local artist Joy Cleaver, will be on display and raffled off as a fundraiser for Art Center East. Visitors may purchase their raffle tickets in the Gift Gallery or on the ACE website. Art Center East has also collaborated with the Union County Warming Station for this exhibit; visitors who bring one item from the warming station’s wish-list will receive one free raffle ticket in exchange (one exchange per visitor). A fortunate patron will become the new owner of the quilt, valued at $275.00, at the end of the exhibit. 

     The public is invited to attend the “Fiber Focused on Color” closing reception on Friday, March 11 from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. 

 

6TH ANNUAL FIBER ARTS & JEWELRY EXHIBIT

Inspired by the exhibit “Tiny Fruits” by Sarah Bird at Art Center East in La Grande, OR — “classic surrealist simplicity” is created to reflect the energy these unique oil paintings bring to the open gallery space. Music is “3 147 from April 2017” by Michael Wall Dance/Choreography/Filming/Editing by Abigail Rebekah abigail-rebekah.com

Teahouse is a cottage bakery that specializes in whole grain cookies, pastries, and sourdough bread, as well as a curated selection of loose leaf teas.

Join Teahouse at Art Center East during the 6th Annual Fiber Arts & Jewelry Exhibit opening reception on February 4 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm.

We will be sampling three rooibos tea blends -- rooibos is a naturally caffeine-free herbal tea that offers a delicious option for a full-bodied cup of tea any time of day.

Created and donated by local artist Joy Cleaver, this beautiful quilt is part of ACE's Sixth Annual Fiber Arts & Jewelry Exhibit. It will be raffled off as a fundraiser for Art Center East. Purchase your raffle tickets in the Gift Gallery.

All proceeds from the raffle go towards ACE's Youth Scholarship Program. This program provides youth up to 18 years of age with reduced-cost (50% off) ACE classes and opportunities to engage in arts of all kinds (take-home art kits, music ensembles, etc.).  

Art Center East has collaborated with the Union County Warming Station for the exhibit; bring one item from the Warming Station’s wish-list to ACE and receive one free raffle ticket in exchange (one exchange per visitor).

Visit www.ucwarmingstation.org to look at the Warming Station's wish list.

The raffle drawing will be March 11 between 6:00 - 8:00 pm during the Closing Reception for both current exhibits. A fortunate visitor will receive the quilt (valued at $275) at the end of the exhibit.

Art Center East (ACE) is honored, excited, and humbled to announce that our Co-Op Gallery will now be named Orlaske Gallery after late local artist Sue Orlaske. The announcement was made during a reception on March 11 at ACE. 

Sue and her husband, Mitch Wolgamott, moved to Eastern Oregon in the 1990s - briefly to La Grande and then to Summerville.  Sue then became a full-time artist with a well-equipped studio where she produced ceramic/clay art as well as two-dimensional art.  Her themes often included abstract and representational natural elements — Eastern Oregon landscapes, critters, and plants. She was also known for the depth and richness of her Batik watercolors.

Sue was a member of and actively involved with three art co-ops:  Valley Art in Forest Grove, ACE in La Grande, and Crossroads in Baker City.  She became well known in the region for the quality of her work and for her willingness to help and teach others. 

ACE thanks the family and friends of the four candidates for allowing us to share and celebrate their loved ones. Each of the candidates made -- and continues to make -- an impact on ACE and the wider community. We are so grateful for all that these four artists contributed.

Thanks to you, our community, for such wonderful feedback. We understand the importance and delicate nature of such a voting poll and appreciate all of you who took the time and energy to thoughtfully cast your vote. We received hundreds of votes between January 1 and March 10. 

Craig Canoy

Dennis “Craig” Canoy was born in 1943 in Silverton, Oregon, to Frances Grace Walker and Virgil David Canoy. He had two siblings: Kent Canoy and Shelley DeSimone. An avid outdoor enthusiast, Craig enjoyed hiking, backpacking, free-heel skiing, and rock-climbing, including ice and snow climbing. 

Craig earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and thereafter taught art and design in the Hillsboro Union High School District for three decades. He lived in several cities on the western side of Oregon before relocating to La Grande upon retirement in the 1990s. He loved the Elkhorn Mountains, Anthony Lakes, and the Owyhee high country of southeast Oregon. 

Often focused on depicting the beauty of the natural world, Craig worked primarily in pastel. He exhibited his work in three galleries in Oregon, including Portland State’s Littman Gallery, the Kathrin Cawein Gallery of Art at Pacific University, and Peterson’s Gallery in Baker City. 

Upon his death in 2020, Craig made a cash bequest to Art Center East (ACE) and left his art collection to ACE for the purposes of fundraising. Many of the pieces in the collection are his own work, but he also was actively attentive to and collected the work of regional artists. A benefit show was held in Summer 2021 to honor his legacy. Proceeds from this exhibit represent an investment in the community art classes and events that draw on the power of artistic expression to nourish us and connect us to one another through the joy of encountering and creating art.

Tom Madden
Thomas “Tom” Madden was a poet, writer, and teacher who believed that poems grow from the intersection of personal and cultural history in the context of both exterior and interior landscapes. He taught English, Writing, and Journalism at Eastern Oregon University for twenty-five years and led poetry workshops at Art Center East after his retirement from EOU in 2000. 

He enjoyed teaching community members to write poems about many subjects, especially the natural environment, helping them craft short pieces about landscape, seasons, weather, plants, and animals. He was above all else a teacher and emphasized a constructive, friendly atmosphere in his classes and workshops. 

A native of Montana, Tom studied at Carroll College in Helena and earned graduate degrees at the University of Montana, where he studied with poet Richard Hugo, and at the University of Oregon. Early in his career, he worked as a reporter for several newspapers, including the Portland Oregonian. He published three collections of poems: Graves in Wheat (1998), Lessons for Custer (2006)—a finalist for the Western Writers of America Spur Award in 2007, and This Dialect of Grass (published posthumously in 2019). He also wrote short plays, book reviews, and a libretto for a children’s opera. Tom resided in La Grande, Oregon, with his wife and three children from 1975 until his death in 2017.

Sue Orlaske

Sue was born in southwestern Michigan but moved to Oregon in 1977 to attend graduate school and has been here ever since.  She has both a B.S. and an M.S. in Biology.  She had no formal art training but from a young age was interested in art and produced detailed pen and ink drawings.  For several years in the 1980s, Sue owned and operated a retail business — a coffee and tea store long before there was a Starbucks on every corner. It was during that time that Sue also became interested in pursuing art in a more serious way.  She started taking classes in pottery at Valley Art Center in Forest Grove.

In the early 1990s, Sue sold her business and she and her husband moved to Eastern Oregon - briefly to La Grande and then to Summerville.  Sue then became a full-time artist with a well-equipped studio where she produced ceramic/clay art as well as two-dimensional art.  Her themes often included abstract and representational natural elements — Eastern Oregon landscapes, critters, and plants.

Sue was a member and actively involved with three art co-ops:  Valley Art in Forest Grove, Art Center East in La Grande, and Crossroads in Baker City.  She became well known in the region for the quality of her work and for her willingness to help and teach others.  She has been in many art shows, won several regional art awards, and was a featured artist on Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Oregon Art Beat. Her work has been carried by several galleries in Oregon and Southern Washington.

Kathelene Galloway 

Kat Galloway was born June 11, 1964, in Pocatello, Idaho. Kat loved the West and spent years as a young child in Utah where she discovered her passion for art. Her passion took her to Boise where she received her bachelor of fine arts with honors and later went on to receive her master of fine arts degree in drawing from the University of Indiana.

In 1998 she moved back to the West to be near her mother and begin her teaching career at Eastern Oregon University. While at EOU Kat taught printmaking and drawing in the art department. Kat was an inspired teacher who brought out the best in all of her students, many of whom came to her feeling like the task ahead was impossible. Through her encouraging teaching style, her students were able to find within them a way to overcome the impossible to not only create art but to also deeply appreciate art.

Kat was also a tenacious force behind the Union County Arts and Culture Center (UCACC), which merged with ArtsEast in 2015 to become Art Center East. She was a major player in Arts for All and Central School’s Art Literacy program. Additionally, she worked to lease the Carnegie Library space from the City of La Grande, to clean up the aftermath of the library move out, and to make the space presentable for the public to come view the work of local artists. She worked with little financial support and much of her own sweat and skill.

HOURS

Monday - Friday: 10AM - 4PM
Saturday: Noon - 4PM

Wednesday-Friday:  12:00pm - 5:00pm
Saturday:  10:00am - 2:00pm

1006 Penn Ave., La Grande, OR 97850
PO Box 541, La Grande, OR 97850

[email protected]
541-624-2800 

THANK YOU ART CENTER EAST FUNDERS

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