October 24, 2022 | St. Lucie Cultural Alliance | Spotlight – The Vault

Contributed by Ellen Gillette

The VAULT

CULTURAL ALLIANCE’S NEW HUB

 

The late author Joyce Landorf Heatherley wrote a slim book entitled Balcony People in which she compared encouragers – those in our lives who stand on the balcony cheering us on – with what she called “basement people,” those who do the opposite.

For St. Lucie Cultural Alliance, however, “the basement” has a positive connotation.

Downtown Fort Pierce is home to many historical buildings, some dating to the late 19th century, going through multiple transitions over the years. A recent metamorphosis has taken place again at 111 Orange Avenue.

In the 1980s this main location of Sun Bank included additional office spaces. It is now divided into several sections that include St. Lucie Cultural Alliance, with offices and galleries upstairs.

This summer, they headed to the basement. “We’re calling the entire space The Vault,” curator Terry Long says, “because there’s an actual bank vault down there. It’s the coolest thing ever.”

Long owned and managed two galleries, among other endeavors, after receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio. She became involved with the Cultural Alliance at an outside event held at Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens. “When I met and talked with Executive Director Alyona Ushe, she mentioned the need for a curator and I said I’d be perfect for the job,” Long says with a chuckle.

Long has been in Fort Pierce for about three years and curator for the last year and a half. “Fort Pierce is a rich area, really all of St. Lucie County is extremely rich with a variety of talented people in the arts, music, dance, and theater. There is an abundance of incredibly talented artists.”

Fort Pierce also has its own genre, art history-wise. “We have the Highwaymen,” Long explains, “and hundreds of plein air artists. I could go on and on. As more people become aware of St. Lucie Cultural Alliance, we’re constantly increasing membership.”

The present incarnation of the organization, Long says, is not that old, with much room to expand. “It’s very energetic. We have offices and a gallery in Fort Pierce. With almost 300 members, we’ve just begun to plow the richness in the south county. We need to find a venue there, too,” she adds.

A rapidly increasing membership led to the happy problem of becoming cramped.  “We started in little offices inside the county administration building on Virginia Avenue,” Long says, “then moved downtown. But we’ve outgrown it.”

Over the years, artists have been housed upstairs and down, including Art Mundo, a non-profit that focused on visual arts. Eventually, a flooding issue developed in the basement. “That problem has been solved,” Long says. “Lisa Jill Allison’s gallery moved in and now we have the other space.”

For Rebecca Miller, chair of the board of directors for the Cultural Alliance, things have come full circle. “I was also chair of Art Mundo. We had a gallery, visiting artists, classes, and an Art Walk. This was the pulse of Fort Pierce, the center of the gravitational pull for the art world,” she states.

Without municipal support, however, the concept was not sustainable. Also, Miller says there was a growing vision for more than the visual arts – an entity that celebrates all art forms and culture. St. Lucie Cultural Alliance fulfills this with municipal and corporate partnerships in addition to its members.

As the magazine was going to press, progress was being made cleaning the new “digs,” adding restrooms, and packing up for the move. Visitors to The Vault will enter through Lisa Jill Allison Gallery and Working Studio, which moved to the basement during the summer.

“I’ve been in various spaces in the building for ten years,” Allison says. “I also had a waterfront gallery, but here, I’ve finally found room for studio workspace and an extensively stocked gallery space together. It’s huge.”

Allison, who works in mixed media and acrylic, participates in Cultural Alliance events as well as hosting her own. “Now that COVID is behind us, I look forward to more opportunities,” she says.

Past Lisa Jill Allison’s space is the Cultural Alliance’s five rooms with glass walls facing the walkway, creating a unified, welcoming feel. “It’s very artsy looking,” Long says. “The individual rooms are quite big for offices, classrooms, and workspaces.”

A boutique is also planned for handcrafted jewelry, wearable art, and more. “We have members who make all kinds of things,” Long says.

“I call the rooms ‘galleries with desks,’” Ushe adds. “We didn’t want to waste a millimeter of space for administration, so each gallery will be multipurpose and include a work area for one of our team members. This way, anyone coming into the gallery can have all their questions answered, but we’ll also use these galleries for workshops, residencies, and any other creative use we can dream up. Classes of all disciplines are greatly needed in this area. There’s a huge appetite for creative learning.” Plans include belly dancing instruction, visual arts, professional development, film screenings, intimate performances, and much more.

The expansive bank vault will house juried art shows which are changed periodically and usually reflect a theme. The acoustics promise to be an asset for live music and poetry readings.

The financial aspect is just as positive. “The cost per square foot is amazing,” Miller says, “which helps us to be fiscally responsible. We’re here to help the art and cultural world, so it’s not about being showy, but now we have four times the space.”

Ushe says that community partnerships are an important aspect of the Cultural Alliance reaching far beyond the walls of The Vault. “Rather than just hosting events ourselves, we want to collaborate more with others, supporting our members who are doing events. We are providing public schools with master classes, identifying teachers to share their expertise, arranging music concerts with the Department of Parks and Recreation, and collaborating with nonprofits in powerful initiatives.”

The Cultural Alliance plans to be ready for a grand opening at the November Art Walk on Friday, November 18. “It will be a big deal,” Long says. “Wine, food, music … it’s a big happy space. Our offices in the past have been fairly conservative and formal, but The Vault will be more fun and edgy.”

“The One Eleven building has good bones,” Miller says. “Good ghosts. With its history, it’s a microcosm of where art is happening. And we’re staying.”

 

To learn more about the St. Lucie Cultural Alliance and the benefits of membership, please visit ArtStLucie.org, email: info@artstlucie.org or call 772-462-2783.