Every two months the Gallery at Mountain Shadows debuts a brand new, museum-quality exhibition.
Located in Paradise Valley, at 5445 E. Lincoln Dr., every new exhibition at the gallery debut comes their art receptions. Open to the public, these art receptions offer a chance to learn more and talk to the artist behind the work while enjoying complimentary wine from Hearth ‘61.
There’s so much that goes into making these exhibitions happen, said Cece Cole, curator of the Gallery at Mountain Shadows: "It's the one that pulls it all together for us."
To dive deeper into what goes into each exhibit, and the process of finding different artists to feature, we did a Q&A with Cole.
Q: Can you give me some background about yourself? How did you get started curating the Gallery at Mountain Shadows?
A: I’m originally from Louisiana, but I've done a lot of traveling and lived in various places around the states. I met my husband and we moved to Arizona in 2017.
As a kid I was always talented at art. I wasn’t like “oh, I’m going to be an artist,” it just sort of organically happened. I studied it in my undergraduate and then went on to get my master’s degree from the University of Iowa. Right out of grad school I did a residency fellowship, teaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University which was an eye opening experience. I was there for two years in the teaching and art program and then I just went off and did the art thing. It has certainly become a passion of mine and although I sometimes struggle with thinking that everyone’s an artist now, I always see the underlying value of art to create dialogue between people on a safe, level playing ground.
Q: Where does your passion stem from? What makes you passionate about what you do?
A: One of the things that fascinated me about art was the lifestyle. Just that feeling of freedom to go around expressing yourself. It wasn’t just that I loved to draw or paint, I’m starting to realize that now that I've gotten older and started doing my own work and working with other artists I get really interested in what the dialogue is. That’s what leads into what I do as a curator.
Q: Can you dive into the behind-the-scene work that you do to make these gallery showings happen? What is that process like?
When I curate it’s that same practice of problem solving, making these things come together. If you’re hanging someone else’s artwork, you may end up putting two pieces next to each other that they would have never thought to do… it’s this really interesting process of the relationship with the artist that you have because you’re constantly having dialogue about their work. That dialogue is the biggest part, it’s a lot of back and forth. Some artists come in knowing exactly what they want to do and have a plan, while others just come and drop off their stuff and say “okay, you do your job.”
It’s our job to put up a holistic and thoughtful exhibition. We have a gallery space in the middle of a hotel that you can’t miss. I do a lot on my own to promote the artists that I work with, whether it’s on social media or just out and about with my ever growing network of people. As I’ve joined committees and leadership groups, I’m out there advocating for the artists.
Q: In terms of talking with artists that you seek out and do studio visits to, how do you determine if they’d be a good fit to showcase in the gallery?
A: It’s a lot behind the scenes of making friendships and relationships. Sometimes it’s hard, sometimes it’s easy. You have to really make sense of the space and the people’s work in this space, so I’m careful about the people that I work with because I think they have to fit in that environment.
A lot of galleries are like a blank slate and I think a lot of work can be elevated in a nicer space so I love it for people to have that opportunity. However, it’s not open to everyone because of all the things I think about on my own and the time I take to study and research. Whether that’s about climate change, or whatever I absorb, are things that I’m also commenting on when I create a show like Spring Fever.
For Spring Fever, I had the title in mind for about a year and I started to think of what I wanted the show to say and to speak about. I write about it, I think about it and go to the artists and sell them on it… there are lots of people working with art that looks at climate issues and gender issues, but I wanted some very specific things. You definitely see the imprint of the curator and it gives you this other layer of things. Even though it’s not our name on the wall, it’s a lot of time spent thinking about what you’re putting out in the world.
Q: Can you share some more insight about your own art? When you’re looking at something blank, how do you go about creating something in the means of trying to showcase your feelings and get a message across?
A: My work has always been installation so I use a little bit of everything. I would say my work is more of a cumulative process where I’m building things off of a collection of things, or I’ll select a series of scrap material that comes from other projects and do a layout for a future sculpture idea. It’s very process oriented.
I don’t go about my work thinking about selling it or hoping everyone likes it, but one of the things that inspires me and that I’m really drawn to is things that give me a sense of wonder. I like to use found or recycled materials that might have double meanings or double feelings. Like if you have clear plastic cases or packaging, it becomes this shiny little frame box ornament when you take it out of context. Part of that is driven by my underlying political charge that I care deeply about climate change, climate inequities and all the things that go along with that. It’s this universal issue that binds us all together because we’re all in that same sinking ship.
My work now is starting to evolve where I feel way more and that’s probably because of curating. I feel like I’m almost more driven by the bias of starting something by engaging with other artists and getting out there in my community more as opposed to sitting in my studio making a beautiful object to hang on the wall. It’s interesting because I think as artists, a lot of us evolve and change. I love the role of the curator and being the person to help uplift my arts community to have the dialogues that push us all a little bit further because I think we all really thrive on that.
Q: Are there any particular artists or exhibitions that have really stuck with you?
A: There’s so many stories I have about working with artists that are things that keep me going on the hard days. They’re just so impactful and all of the times I would ever feel like “oh, art doesn’t matter,” I’m always reminded of its value by something that happens between me and one of the artists I’m working with. It gives us a sense of purpose, but it’s also a livelihood for people. We need it culturally and I think it’s really interesting to have people willing to put all their little weird ideas out in front of people.
Q: What type of artists do you typically seek out?
A: It’s kind of an intuitive thing for me. All of these concepts or ideas that are rolling around in my head that I’m processing about the world around me, or the art world, it’s something that intuitively comes up.
Mostly I’m driven by concepts in general. If an artist has some cool ideas that might be the first attraction to the work. I appreciate all kinds of things, decorative arts is one of my favorite things, but when I’m showing work I’m interested in the underlying, more subliminal messaging. That’s the part that starts the conversation.
When I walk into a studio it’s usually because I’ve seen their work somewhere. It’s hard to say because my eye is different from another person’s eye. Part of the thing I feel is the responsibility of the curator is to think about the bigger picture. There’s a lot of artwork to me that reads as just pretty to look at by artists that are really skillful, but it doesn’t necessarily, for me, bring anything up that makes me want to ask a question or start a deeper conversation. It’s very methodical for me, but definitely hard.
Most of the artists are local artists, but since I’ve been around living in all these different places, I’ve met so many artists that are so immensely talented. I do have an inclination to bring other artists here and national artists because it grows our community when they come and see a thriving art scene. I’ve shown a couple of people from out of state in the gallery. I’ll do some shows that are more about social engagement in between my more academically motivated shows.
Q: In your opinion, why is it so important to create this forum for artists to showcase their work?
A: It’s twofold where I feel like art brings people together and what better place to do it than in the middle of a really cool looking hotel with a nice cocktail bar and a beautiful Camelback Mountain backdrop.
I think it’s important to have the dialogue part of it because we need community more than ever now. It’s a great place to come meet people, network and see something interesting that might challenge you. You might love it, you might hate it and it might make you mad. But that’s okay, at least it makes you feel something. Art is a great instigator for conversation. It's where you can see something in yourself, learn something about yourself, learn something about the world, or learn something about someone else's perspective or feeling that may help you understand the next person you meet. I'm not putting all this weight on it to say a pretty picture is gonna save the world. But, I do think that the community around it makes that very possible.
For more information about the Gallery at Mountain Shadows, visit mountainshadows.com/resort/the_gallery. More information about Cole and her work can be found at cccole.com.
