Off Center Art

Off Center Art Gallery

Off Center Art Gallery, located at 808 Park St. in Albuquerque, New Mexico might easily be called Outsider Art Gallery because most of the art and artists are certainly on the outside of artistic convention. The building is across the street from a park on the west end of downtown where the gentrification of the neighborhood, that has its origins in the early part of the twentieth century, begins to stall. Beyond the few square blocks of renovation are dilapidated buildings old motels and hotels in the last phase of efficacy. Off Center Art Gallery sits at the epicenter where tree lined, residential streets that feed into the area of Eighth and Central are filled with homes of the affluent. One block to the east is a downtown area bustling with the revival of the past ten years that has seen the old Albuquerque High School converted into condominiums, the area anchored by restaurants, bars, art galleries, haberdasheries, and jewelry stores preserved in a setting reminiscent of the heydays of route 66.

Off Center Art Gallery is nestled into a side street at the west end of downtown where affluence ends, but you can still see it from the front door. The art gallery provides free work space for the artists, and you can watch them work as you peruse the gallery. The founder of the gallery is Janis Timm-Bottes an art therapy counselor who saw a need for those who could not afford one-on-one art therapy; disabled veterans, homeless people, handicapped people, shut-ins with nowhere to go. The gallery was established ten years ago, and has been in this location for eight years. Ms. Timm-Bottes has moved on, but the gallery remains as one of the older tenants in the area. The work space is open to all, and the day I was there seven artists were working at tables and three staff members were serving artists in wheelchairs who have limited control of their extremities, children finger painting, and a few men, but mostly women sewing or making jewelry.

Ron, the man who runs the gallery, is a furniture builder by trade who now spends most of his creative time there. He is there because he feels hope for humanity within the walls. He regularly sees the kindness of patrons, along with the desperation, hope, and joy of those who come to create something. All artists need the money as most live at or below the poverty level, living on incomes of twelve to fourteen thousand dollars a year, all government stipends.

There is a story here that extends well beyond the few hundred words of this essay. It is a story of tragedy for some who have done nothing deserving of their affliction but be born. When I enter I cannot help but think about my job in a psychiatric hospital where I learned to care for people that many Americans care nothing for. I feel the vibration of wonder, the vibration of those trying to find meaning and purpose in their state of existence, just like all of us, but here it is more salient, beautiful. The art is interesting, simple, complex, whimsical, good, and bad, and when I leave I think about Janis Timm-Bottes, and Ron, and the others who have discovered their purpose in life.

Cody Davis