Langdon Divers Gallery at FDLPL: Fond du Lac Artists’ Association Show and Upcoming Exhibitions

Melissa Kolstad is the curator for the Langdon Divers Gallery at the Fond du Lac Public Library in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. For her quarterly series with the Library as Incubator Project, Mel talks about exhibitions and displays in the library’s gallery.

by Melissa Kolstad

Fond du Lac Artist Association’s member of the year, Roxine McQuitty, has her own wall in this exhibit! She’s a collagist and printmaker, and much of her work is fun and whimsical!

As we head into the close of the year, I have to take pause and look back at the last 10 months.  I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I assumed the duties of curator here at the Langdon Divers Gallery!  I have learned so much about how to hang an exhibit, and it has even informed my own work.  Much like being a juror for an exhibit (something else I was able to do this year for the first time), one learns so much being on the other side of the exhibit.  It has also made me very aware that it really is “nothing personal” when deciding which pieces to hang in a show, which is a great lesson for every artist to learn!

We just ended our “All Hallow’s Eve show this week, and the current exhibit is the Fond du Lac Artists’ Association’s Member Exhibit.  This venerable group has been in existence since 1968 (coincidentally, the year I was born!) and they’re still going strong.  This exhibit is ENORMOUS – nearly 50 pieces grace the walls this month!  It’s one of the largest we’ve ever had in the gallery.

I’m a little embarrassed to write about the artist for December…because it’s Yours Truly..    Late last year I was able to nab a spot, and I took it – before I became curator.  I am honored and excited to be the artist, but we’re just going to call it the “Curator’s Exhibit”.  Meanwhile, I am busy making new work for the show, like this piece, which is an encaustic work.

“If I Told You, You’d Never Believe Me”, Mel Kolstad; encaustic, 2015.

But what I’m REALLY excited to tell you about is the exhibit for which we’re currently holding a Call for Artists – yes, the Detritus Project is FINALLY going citywide!!  I am THRILLED that this exhibit will finally become a reality!  This project is near and dear to my heart, because it’s a project where the Library as Incubator allowed me to guest blog my results!

Mel Kolstad’s “The Detritus Project: Fond du Lac Public Library”, which was inspired by Library as Incubator Project and is now going citywide.

The gist of the project:  the circulation desk of the library kept all of the discarded items found in returned borrowed library books – the “detritus” –  and saved all of it in a box.  Then, they gave me the contents of the box, and I made art work from it – namely, this piece, which now hangs in the first floor alcove, very close to the circulation desk that helped me!  (You can see it in the background.)  Now, any artist who wants to participate will get the chance to do the same – and the finished pieces will comprise The Detritus Project exhibit in Feburary of 2016!  There is already a lot of interest in the project.

In my next post in February, I’ll post photos of the exhibit!  I’m so excited that a real-life Library as Incubator Project is taking shape, and now I can show others how much fun it is to work with libraries on art projects – the very essence of Library as Incubator Project itself.

 

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