WallSpace Galleries

The San Pedro River Arts Council is currently maintaining three WallSpace Galleries in the City of Benson, AZ: City Hall Gallery, Turquoise Hills Triple Green Café, and Skyline Assisted Living Home. Only the City Hall Gallery has themed shows, but all of these spaces require that you be a member of the San Pedro River Arts Council.

City Hall Gallery is, as the name suggests, the City Hall for the City of Benson. It is in an old church building. The walls are white, punctuated by wide, arched windows. The City of Benson has graciously purchased a permanent hanging system to use in that building. The hanging system consists of a rail that runs along the top of the wall, with wires suspended from it and hooks to hang the work on. The hooks and wires are very sturdy and can hold a lot of weight. The wires are moveable so that wide pieces can be correctly centered.

This building serves as the City Council chambers, so we share space with flags and a long curved desk where the Councilors sit. It is on a raised dais in the front of the building. There are rows and rows of pews used now for spectators. "Our" walls run along the length of the building. We are currently requesting more rails and wires, so we can take advantage of all of the space in there. When we ask that you frame your work, this is the reason: we need a way to hang the work correctly, without the possibility of its falling if brushed against during the normal process of people coming and going there. This Gallery is only open on Saturdays, with the help of artist "sitters," from 1-4 p.m., although the City clerk's office is very accommodating and will open it by request, and, of course, it is open when there is City activity going on in there. In this Gallery, the work is themed, and a poster in the lobby is made to accompany the show.

Our second space is far different. Turquoise Hills Triple Green Café is in the clubhouse building of a golf and RV resort. These folks have also purchased a permanent hanging system, and we are allowed one long wall, broken by two wide arched doorways into other parts of the building. This space is open all the time to the public for meals, and the work is by one artist only. There is no theme. The walls are an off-white color, changed for our benefit after the awful storm in August of 2010, that tore the roof off of the Triple Green, and made it unusable until redecorated.

The third Gallery is at Skyline Assisted Living Home near Pomerene, open most of the time during the days. The space is not large, and serves an aging, but very appreciative population. Though not themed, the shows hung here are "softer and gentler" in tone than is required of other places. The walls here are off-white. There is no permanent hanging system yet, so we continue to pound in the nails required to hang the work. This wall can take about 1 dozen pictures. The residents here are enthralled when we come to hang the work and often ask about it. They are likely to play the piano and sing for us as we go about our work.

All of the work hung in all of the Galleries is marked with simple tags made by our own graphic designer, Shryl Miles, herself an artist. She also makes a tag with a personal statement, or bio for each artist. The work is most often for sale, and many pieces have been sold since we started doing this a couple of years ago.

If you want to exhibit in any of these spaces, you must first become a member of SPRAC (see our website for details). You must submit the work, by JPG, to be juried, along with a title, medium, size and price for the work to Sylvia@sprarts.org and then you must bring the accepted work, framed and properly wired in the back, with hooks and eyes (no brackets) to the facility at the appointed time. There are no fees for exhibiting work at this time, and there are no prizes for exhibiting. Each facility has its own length of time that work is to be exhibited: City Hall, 2 months, Turquoise Hills, 1 month, and Skyline, 2 months. It's requested that you leave the work on the wall for that length of time, even if it is sold.