Art to Heal
Open Sky Art Gallery…
The Open Sky Art Gallery in Montague is bold in its vision. Its mission is “to serve the healing of the world by expanding public awareness of social justice through the arts,” and it gives system-impacted artists a way to re-integrate into society and increase their self-worth. “As different as our artists may be, they’re not all necessarily current or formerly incarcerated. Some of them have been impacted by serious crime or are family members of those impacted by serious crime. But one thing I think it’s very fair to say is that all of our artists have used art to heal from trauma in their lifetime,” explains the museum’s creator and director, Snow Thorner.
But opening the doors to what is billed as the first and only social justice gallery in the Pacific Northwest wasn’t always on Thorner’s radar. It started with her introduction to indigenous talking circles. “The power of the talking circle is that it creates a safe space where vulnerability can come out of the shadows into the light, and where we can each feel safe sharing some of the darker things that have happened to us. This helps heal the shame and guilt so we can step into forgiveness. And for me, I’ve been a late-life learner, with a longtime passion for indigenous cultures, art and especially Native American and African spirituality.
I spentnine months backpacking through seven African countries where this passion for indigenous style talking circles played out once again. But there was always this voice whispering in my head that I was supposed to work with prison-related populations. I finally honored that for the first time in 2018 when I worked with the Siskiyou County Arts Council on a reentry grant via California Arts Council, and I got to lead indigenous style talking circles for the newly released inmates,” recalls Thorner.
Not long after that, Thorner hooked up with the Compassion Prison Project, which used similar methods as part of their own trauma-informed work with incarcerated populations. “I was really drawn to them so I got trained in leading their compassion circles. I have now learned that trauma really is the basis of criminality, especially childhood trauma. The Compassion Prison Project has surveyed thousands of inmates, so we have the statistics to show that those behind bars tend to have been impacted by at least four adverse childhood experiences, while 99 percent of those on death row score 10 out of 10. What that tells us that we are incarcerating, and in some cases putting to death, some of the most heavily traumatized members of our society.”
Thorner’s social justice work finally collided with her lifelong love of fine art and poetry in downtown Montague with her partner, John Rudolph. “It’s a cool old space with 11-foot ceilings and even has some original paneling on the walls. My original interest was really the residential investment property upstairs, but it came with all this commercial space downstairs that was divided between two rooms where the second room really lacked light. So, John had the brilliant idea to actually eliminate the wall between the two rooms and suddenly the space was filled with a tremendous amount of daylight from the oversized showroom windows. That literally shed light on a vision. I’m very intuitively led, and once I had the clarity that this was going to be a justice-inspired art gallery, what was I going to say?”
Thorner says she’s continued to see signs that the gallery was meant to be. “We ended up painting the space a pale blue gray color that we get endless compliments on. I found out the paint company calls the color ‘Exhale,’ which ironically was also the name of our first exhibition, so I knew it was the right paint color. But my life is kind of like this continually, where everything lines up. It’s just miraculous.”
In its first 12 months, the gallery hosted nearly 40 public and private events, many of them free, with multiple curated exhibits and several artist presentations. It’s also become a nonprofit with a board, and is blessed with 10 or so volunteers to help out.
But Thorner herself shows no sign of slowing down. “I’m a pretty passionate person, and honestly, I have no time or energy or interest in blandness. I just can’t deal with it,” Thorner says with a laugh. This month, that energy is focused on the gallery’s next exhibit, with an opening reception being held Oct. 14 at 2pm, which Thorner notes, is also Indigenous People’s Day. “The exhibit will be called Voices: An Art of Excursion and will feature the work of three currently incarcerated artists and two formerly incarcerated artists, including well-known Siskiyou County artist Marls Jermutus and Michael Louis Mollo of Ashland,” she says. “I’d also love to add that you can also always buy fine art from our Affordable Art Shoppe which is another great way to support the gallery.”•
Open Sky Art Gallery • 125 S. 11th St., Montague
Hours: Fridays, 4:30 – 7 pm; Saturdays, 11 am – 3 pm
www.openskyartgallery.com • (541) 292-2772
