Arts District pioneers celebrate creative camaraderie

In 1984, Tenley Shewmake, an artist with connections to Salem College, gathered together a group of 20 to 30 artists, including Hitchcock and Lackey-Zachmann, to found an artist-run gallery where creatives could make and exhibit whatever they wanted.

Artworks Gallery, Winston-Salem’s oldest cooperative gallery, was only the second artistic organization in what eventually became the Downtown Arts District.

On a recent Sunday, Hitchcock and Lackey-Zachman, along with new co-op members and friends of Artworks Gallery, celebrated 40 years of camaraderie and creativity. Without pioneers like them, the City of Arts and Innovation could not have earned its name.

“Besides Associated Artists and SECCA, there were no places in Winston-Salem for young artists to show their work on a regular basis, so we decided that we needed our own space,” Lackey-Zachmann says. SECCA, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, was recently renamed N.C. Museum of Art Winston-Salem and is a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

“We decided we could do it on our own with no staff and no director and have the freedom to do whatever we wanted to do,” Hitchcock says. “We had theme shows. We painted directly on the walls. There were definitely people who had an anarchist point of view, and most of us were, yeah, we can do what we want.”

Other early inhabitants of the Arts District, Tamara Propst and her late husband, Ron, a potter, helped the Artworks folks find their first space in what is now Steele Group Architects. The Propsts occupied the space that is now 6th & Vine Restaurant and Wine Bar. Both spaces are on Sixth Street.

The Propsts later bought the large space across Sixth that fronts on Trade and rented to Artworks and other artists and shopkeepers.

One requirement for new members is that they serve on the exhibitions committee and help other artists hang their shows.

“We get to know each other by hanging shows together,” Lackey-Zachmann says.

Member Kathy Scherma has collected, matted and framed about 50 4-by-4-inches pieces from all of the members. They are selling for $40 apiece at the gallery as a fundraiser.

The gallery members pay monthly dues, and the rest of the rent comes from the sale of artworks. The gallery takes 30 percent, Lackey-Zachmann says, whereas most galleries take 40, 50 or even 60 percent.

The Artworks co-op keeps about 20 to 25 members. “That way everybody can have a show every year,” Lackey-Zachmann says. “Some people have been around for a long time, and others have been here just 10 years or so.

“The most unusual thing about Artworks Gallery is that we’ve maintained a place for people who make art who are focused on their art. They can make anything. They can do anything, and we trust that they will be professional, but they can go their own way, and they can change their mind. We don’t demand that they keep the same style over time. And they can charge whatever they want to charge.”

“Artworks Gallery’s 40th Anniversary Exhibition” honors the organization’s adventurous past and celebrates its vibrant present. It will run through Oct. 26.