Openings to art

In the early 1990s, Maria Phillips once got a full-time position to teach art history at Chico State University, only to see budget cuts take away her full class—leading her to commute from Chico all the way to Georgia for a teaching job.

“Yes, can you believe it?” says the energized, Italian-born, Venezuela-raised Phillips with a toss of her curly hair. “I always used to joke that one day I should open an art history store and just sell art history,” she adds with a slightly accented laugh.

Apparently that old joke planted a seed, because Phillips and her partner, fellow retired art historian Dolores Mitchell, are busily preparing to open the Avenue 9 Gallery, at 180 E. Ninth Ave., Suite 3. The pair bought the white, duplex-style building (the third of three adjoining buildings across the street from the French Gourmet Bakery/Cafà) to offer local solo and group shows exploring specific themes, as well as free Sunday Salon talks, critiques, and a wide assortment of professional workshops, classes and presentations for all ages.

“We’re excited to be offering something new,” says Phillips, “the first art gallery in town run by two art historians!”

Both women are also visual artists who will bring well-traveled, experienced backgrounds to the project: Phillips won an American Academy Rome Prize as well as numerous fellowships and grants for her studies, while 19th-century specialist Mitchell has over 30 years of expertise teaching Renaissance through 20th-century art at Chico State.

“We’d like to de-mystify the whole idea of artists as ‘separate’ from the community … to move something like the university experience into the community,” adds Mitchell.

Sitting inside the cozy, 800-square-foot space currently under renovation, I talk to both women about art and how they met, while Phillips’ husband hammers away at the walls behind us. One can see a few oil paintings lying against a nearby wall, at least one of which, a green oil painting adorned with loose keys (it’s by Elizabeth Newman-Kuiper), will be featured in the opening exhibition on Jan. 16—a “very personal” group exploration of the theme Openings.

Phillips and Mitchell had been running into each other at art conferences around the world, but it was Phillips’ “amazing” mother, 87-year-old former Chico teacher Elvira Granieri, who brought them closer together after tutoring Mitchell in Italian.

“We’ve both lived in several major cities and have cultivated a relationship based solely around our art history interests,” says Phillips. “After winding up in Chico, we decided to create a user-friendly, full-service gallery with different links to the community. … We’re both fascinated by the mechanics of culture and exploring the connection between diverse communities and art.”

While both women undoubtedly want to sell work, one can tell this gallery is a labor of love that they hope will become a vital cultural center among the burgeoning Avenues development.

“With the new grant to the chamber and the city of Chico, the arts will be steadily growing in coming years,” notes Phillips. “Chico is at a point where awareness [of the arts] is going to have a much higher profile than ever before.”

The partners say they may bring in some outside artists and perhaps work together with the university on occasion (the French Gourmet will also serve as an adjunct gallery). Both women have numerous local connections and unique insights on the local scene.

Mitchell explains that, although Chico may not have the progressive or cutting-edge art found in urban areas, there are plenty of technically proficient, wonderfully talented local artists with something to say—if only we look closely.

“Nowadays, people breeze though a gallery, look at what they like in 10 seconds and leave," Mitchell says. "We want to open a dialogue and discussion, to have people really open themselves to looking at the art in different ways … to offer a time and a place to talk about art."