We take great pride, at OFF THE WALL, in our gallery’s impactful track record, dating to 1978 and informally further still. It’s a history marked by fierce advocacy for inclusive shows — from the feminist bent of our very first one, “Their Names Are Not Anonymous Anymore,” to two separate solo exhibitions in 1979 for painters Ellen Powell-Tiberino and Roberta Dickinson, a Black woman and a transgender woman.
As we got underway, we definitely were paying attention to the definitive model, some 1,000 feet away. THE PLASTIC CLUB was women-founded just like us. The key difference is our neighbors had opened their doors eight decades earlier, in 1897, before moving to their permanent location at 247 South Camac Street in 1909. There could be no better model for a pioneering art and art-making space.
In recent decades, our stories have richly and reciprocally intertwined. We call THE PLASTIC CLUB our sister organization for good reason. Dozens of its members have found a wider following here, becoming familiar names at OFF THE WALL. Meanwhile, we have co-organized artist education events. Plastic Club leaders have often served on our juries, and Jody Sweitzer, our curator and a long-standing Plastic Clubber, has lent her curatorial talents to several shows on Camac.
ACROSS THE BOARD natural emerges from this time-tested fabric of colleagueship and cross-pollination. It becomes a renewal of the bonds we share. It embodies what our community relishes most: shining a spotlight on a group of talented artists…who just happen to helm the Club right now, as its volunteer leaders. And this show is as much a fresh commitment to how we must work together to ensure our independent-minded organizations thrive far into the future.
So it is with joy and in the spirt of fruitful collaboration that we share art from 10 Plastic Club Board members: CAROL TASHJIAN, President; JANE J. WILKIE, Treasurer; RON PLOEG, Finances, and SUSAN PLOEG; EILEEN ECKSTEIN and CHLOE GLYNN, Corresponding and Recording Secretaries, respectively; KAREN BENSON, Exhibitions Coordinator; REYNA HOWKINS, Volunteer Coordinator; and LAURA STORCK, Publicity and Social Media. We are most fortunate to host them and their inspiring work through Friday, September 25. Enjoy!
TO VIEW, SHOP AND PURCHASE ARTWORK, please go to the menu and click on SHOP ACROSS THE BOARD.
NOTA BENE TO ONLINE BUYERS: While we requisition in-person purchases on an almost-daily basis, it is still possible that you may purchase something on this website that may have already sold in our Gallery. We will make every effort to avoid this circumstance.
