Art gallery as community space and idea incubator: That’s the concept behind the A.P.E. Gallery’s new summer program, “6 X 6,” in which six artists or groups of artists will offer one-week exhibitions that will be coupled with workshops, special events and audience participation.
The idea, organizers say, is to have each project explore the relationship between the public, the work, and the space in which it is made. The gallery, normally devoted to month-long shows, will instead become an “open platform” for artists to try something different, test an idea and engage new audiences.
“We believe that having space for art and creative endeavor is vital to the health of a city and its citizens,” said Kathy Crouch, one of the curators for the new series. “We’re often considering different ways to utilize the gallery and explore the role it can play within the community.”
Crouch and Lisa Thompson, A.P.E.’s director, say the popularity of last winter’s “Microworks” show, which offered small pieces by more than 100 artists who had previously exhibited in the Northampton space, helped lay the groundwork, both financially and thematically, for the new shows.
“We try to be a little more experimental in the summer and look at different things we can do with the space,” said Thompson, who added that if the “6 X 6” series is successful, it could be repeated in the future.
The series begins Sunday with “We Are Not Machines/No Somos Màquinas: Voices of Northampton Restaurant Workers,” a collection of black-and-white portraits of employees from local restaurants, along with taped interviews with the 25 workers. From July 10 to 16, a number of complementary events — live music, panel discussions, a documentary film about New York food service workers — will also take place at the exhibit.
Some of the other one-week programs, which run through Aug. 21, will include a good amount of public participation, including one in which visual artist Neal Parks will trace the movement of people on his sketchboard, which in turn will be projected by video onto the gallery walls and the people themselves.
And in “Golden Structure,” from Aug. 14-21, artist Sue Huang will use the textile of gold lamé to recreate the forts, rooms and other tented structures of her childhood, and she’ll be inviting visitors to extend and rebuild them — even dismantle them — as part of the exhibit.
“We Are Not Machines” combines the work of photographer Leslie Lynn Lucio and audio engineer Adam Reid in conjunction with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center (PVWC), a Northampton group advocating for low-wage workers. The exhibition, organizers say, is designed to profile local restaurant employees and let them tell their stories.
The issue has been in the headlines locally for a number of months. In March, a survey of 235 Northampton restaurant workers said 65 percent hadn’t received the overtime pay they were due.
City restaurant owners have insisted their employees are properly paid. The state Attorney General’s office, meanwhile, says it’s trying to educate restaurant workers about their rights.
Lucio, of Northampton, said she was approached last year by staff at the PVWC about photographing restaurant employees. She liked the idea: She knew a few of the employees she photographed and had once worked in some eateries herself.
“I remember my first time working in a restaurant and feeling that every person should work in one, once in their life,” she wrote in an email. “It’s hard work!”
She photographed the workers in different places, sometimes in their homes or in various spots around the Valley. Some were nervous about having their photos taken, Lucio said, but all “were hopeful about the project. … They hoped people would come out and see the show, or they hoped things would start to change and get better for people in the restaurant industry.”
For her part, Lucio added, “I was really grateful that these people trusted us to work with them. I’ve also been involved in being able to read the interviews, so I have really gotten to learn a lot about the experiences of the subjects.”
Steve Pfarrer can be reached at spfarrer@gazettenet.com.
The A.P.E. Gallery’s “6 X 6” series opens Sunday at 6 p.m., and a launch party for “We Are Not Machines” will take place Friday at the gallery from 5 to 8 p.m. to coincide with this month’s Arts Night Out. For details, visit www.apearts.org.