<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3fK33j_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3fK33j_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="900" height="537" ><figcaption>Applegate Valley artists take part in a panel discussion at the Langford Art Gallery in Phoenix on Nov. 7. The "Artists of the Applegate" exhibition will run through Nov. 21. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>An exhibition at Phoenix’s Langford Art Gallery brings works out of the isolated rural valley to the busier streets of the I-5 corridorAn art show in Phoenix featuring 21 artists from the Applegate marks the first time the artists have shown their work together in one group. According to organizers, this exhibition supports a growing initiative to increase visibility and opportunities for artists throughout the Applegate Valley.JB Palasini is the coordinator of the show, titled “Artists of the Applegate.”“We don’t have any gallery spaces out there, so we like to collaborate with our neighboring cities that do have gallery spaces to get our artists seen,” she said.Palasini took part in a panel of participating artists Nov. 7 at the Langford Art Gallery in Phoenix, which is staging the show. <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0nAHea_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0nAHea_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="580" height="500" ><figcaption>Artist JB Palasini coordinated the exhibition of Applegate artists’ works. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>With the population spread out over three counties, the artists in the group talked about the difficulty in developing working relations with other artists and galleries in the region. Rural but involved in the arts“I put out a call to all the artists in the Applegate and accepted everyone who wanted to be in the show and we made it work,” Palasini said. “We had 21 artists apply and they are all here in the show. We have 45 active members and 21 of those are in the show,” Palasini said.Beca Blake, coordinator at the Langford gallery, was the first person the group approached. “The population is very spread out so that’s why the AGA (A Greater Applegate) is so vital to helping them build their community culture through the arts,” Blake said. “They had heard about Langford gallery, and they said they were looking for something along the I-5 corridor.”Palasini said, “We started the Applegate Valley Vision a few years ago with started with a bunch of listening sessions around the community to see what people wanted.”Presented in collaboration with AGA, the exhibition supports what organizers call “a growing initiative to increase visibility and opportunities for artists throughout the Applegate Valley.” “For being a rural community, we are very involved in the arts,” Palasini said. “We have meetings at the office, but we often resort to Zoom because everyone is so spread out. How do we bring local sales and tourism?” <figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1l55T9_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1l55T9_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="667" height="500" ><figcaption>Exhibiting artist Michelle McAfee and Langford Art Gallery coordinator Beca Blake at the show. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>Striking a balance“We’re not the kind of community that wants to bring in commercial property and big-box stores. We want to bring money into our economy but we don’t want to change the nature and the livelihood that we have, because we all love it. That’s why we live there,” she added. Michelle McAfee is a black-and-white photographer and journalist from Williams.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2Vyx1g_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2Vyx1g_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="350" height="417" ><figcaption>Janis Mohr-Tipton creates jewelry. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>“I have loved photography for a long time, and this is the first time I’ve allowed myself to come outward and share what I have done,” McAfee said. “I love the fact that we’re cross-collaborating between communities. We are so spread that it’s fun to go into another gallery to see what other artists are doing.”McAfee said the isolation in the Applegate was overcome by the show.“It’s amazing to be here meeting the other artists I never had contact with. I feel there’s an inherent isolation in how we live out there in the lifestyle. I do feel that this group is unusual in that it brings together a lot of artists from these very spread-out regions and gives us a common goal and that I haven’t seen before, McAfee added. Janis Mohr-Tipton creates artworks of elaborate jewelry. “This is my work on jewelry that I’ve created over the years,” she said. I’ve gathered materials from other places, like driftwood and shells when I visit the coast. I find a lot of materials around here and the coast. I bring them home and let then sit until they start talking to me. Then I start my work and this is what I get,” Mohr-Tipton said. Corbin Brashear lives in Williams and says she travels all over the region to be in art shows.Different mediums but a common esthetic<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3gG3j0_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3gG3j0_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="400" height="419" ><figcaption>Corbin Brashear creates art from fabric. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>“Even though we’re all in different mediums, strangely there was this common esthetic that had an Applegate kind of flavor to it,” she said. “I was glad to see and be a part of this group. Mostly (in their Zoom meetings) we are just talking heads on a computer screen.”“Since we are lacking gallery space in the Applegate, we have to be creative and seek out places to exhibit our work,” Brashear added. Palasini said the Applegate group has a broad agenda that’s just getting started. Major projects include integrating art, music and theater and growing the visitor economy by increasing coordination among artists with other business owners and event spaces. The Langford gallery was a first step. According to the Applegate Artists group, the AGA has “partnerships with regional galleries, museums, wineries and cultural organizations to expand exhibition and sales opportunities.”The group is also developing a public art trail of murals and sculptures throughout the Applegate watershed with support from a National Endowment for the Arts grant.The group office is in the Sunshine Plaza in Ruch.<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2bR9zC_1Gy9hZ8Y00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2bR9zC_1Gy9hZ8Y00" width="560" height="500" ><figcaption>Artist Sweet Colene with one of her works. Art Van Kraft photo</figcaption></figure>The exhibition continues through Nov. 21. It will be open for extended hours from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 13, for Phoenix Second Phriday. And there will be an artist talk at the gallery from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.Art Van Kraft is an artist living in Ashland and a former broadcast journalist and news director of a Los Angeles-area National Public Radio affiliate. Email him at [email protected].</div></body>

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An exhibition at Phoenix’s Langford Art Gallery brings works out of the isolated rural valley to the busier streets of the I-5 corridor. An art show in Phoenix featuring 21 artists from the Applegate marks the first time the artists have shown their work together in one group. According to organizers, this exhibition supports a growing initiative to increase visibility and opportunities for artists throughout the Applegate Valley.

A coming-out for Applegate artists

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An exhibition at Phoenix’s Langford Art Gallery brings works out of the isolated rural valley to the busier streets of the I-5 corridor. An art show in Pho

A coming-out for Applegate artists

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