A breeze drifts through (SCENE) Metrospace art gallery, stirring the leafy pieces of a glass skeleton — suspended from black-painted exposed ducts above its dappled, concrete floor — to life.
The skeleton, called "Taking the Leap" by Michigan artist Craig Mitchell Smith, embodies motion — also the name of the gallery's first exhibit in its new location at 110 Charles St.
The exhibit, which opened Friday, showcases motion, even in stationary pieces. The gallery coincidentally reopened a week before the East Lansing Art Festival, which brings juried artists to the city.
After three years at 303 Abbott Road, funding came through to demolish that building. It will be cleared to make way for the City Center II project, which could add more retail and housing downtown.
"That meant we needed a new home," said Peter Richards, (SCENE) Metrospace curator. The East Lansing Downtown Development Authority helped the gallery find its new location, which used to house Aroma Gourmet Coffee & Tea.
The new location had water damage and mold issues, Richards said. It also had three different types of flooring, which were replaced with the gallery's new polished and stained concrete floors.
"We got to design the gallery we wanted," Richards said.
The new location places the gallery in the heart of downtown, near the Division Street parking structure and other businesses, like Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.
"People are more likely to see it and stop by," said Sharon Radtke, East Lansing's arts coordinator.
The gallery was opened as part of East Lansing's Cool Cities initiative in 2004. The city provided $12,000 to help with the renovation and relocation of the space, said Tim Dempsey, East Lansing's community and economic development administrator.
"They've done very well, so far, and I think this will strengthen what they've done to date," he said.
"Motion" features a large number of Michigan artists, including Karen Bondarchuk, a Kalamazoo-based kinetic sculptor. Her work's motorized tick-tick-ticking is the only thing that breaks the pumped-in, ambient noise of the gallery. Her pieces "Little Wee Beaver" and "Little Wee Bitch" are motorized needlepoints that fit some of her main motifs.
"This is part of a series I've been working on where animals are being used to describe women and women's genitalia," she said.
Bondarchuk also is interested in the associations drawn between arts and crafts and a woman's domain.
"They really start to question themselves," she said. "They go beyond being quaint."
She also has one larger piece in the exhibit, "Little Bitch," a freestanding sculpture made of welded steel and rubber gloves, which features a pink plastic dog with motorized teats. Bondarchuk heard about the gallery's "Motion" exhibit through a friend who e-mailed her a request for artists.
She interpreted the exhibit's title literally and created work that moved.
"I've heard that it's a pretty diverse interpretation of the idea of motion," she said.
In addition to art, the gallery is a space for showcasing other media, like film and theater. The gallery will resume its regular Saturday night music performances May 26.
One group taking advantage of the gallery's new space is Peppermint Creek Theatre Company.
"It's so easy to take things for granted, especially the arts," said Chad Badgero, the group's executive director. "I don't know if we know how valuable it is to have a space that brings new, cutting-edge, innovative art to East Lansing that's so accessible."
Badgero is enthusiastic about the gallery's new location.
"Before, it was a space and it was accessible, but now it's slick and it's clean," he said. "I love the new space."
Sarah Norris can be reached at norriss3@msu.edu.
