HOLMES BEACH – Monthly Art Walks always draw a crowd to Island Gallery West (IGW) and the Artists’ Guild Gallery of Anna Maria Island, as well as many surrounding businesses that participate in the event. The March 10 Art Walk was bittersweet for IGW, as it was the final day the gallery would be open before closing its doors after 33 years to move to downtown Bradenton.
It was the largest crowd to attend an Art Walk at IGW this season, as most of the 33 member artists gathered to say farewell to both locals and visitors who have visited the member-run co-op art gallery, some for decades. While IGW has issued no official statement on the exact reason for the move, conversations over the past few months have alluded to a rent increase and reduced visitation to the gallery due to ongoing road construction in the direct vicinity of IGW being reasons the move was necessary.
The farewell evening was not a sad event; it was very much the opposite, with most of the artists (none of whom resigned from the gallery because of the move) being excited about the future and more grateful for the past 33 years than sad.
“I’ll miss this place very much, but I’m excited to get in the new space,” member artist Charlotte Sorsen said. “We are going to have a lot more space and will be able to hold classes, demonstrations and a lot of things we just didn’t have the space for here at this location. In the end, it’s going to be a very good thing for all of us.”
IGW officials initially kept the new location a secret, but now say the new gallery will be located at 456 Old Main St. in Bradenton.
“We’re going to have so much room at this new location,” member artist Judy Goldman said. “We’ll have room for classes, a design studio, an open studio for artists that are learning to paint and even a painting with the pros studio. It will be a lot of things that will give back to the community. It’s kind of sad because we have so much of our heart invested here, but we’re growing; that’s just how progress goes.”
The Artists’ Guild of Anna Maria Island is now the only remaining member-run artist co-op gallery on the Island and many members there said they are sad to see IGW leave, believing the two galleries helped each other by providing access to the arts for both locals and visitors alike.
“I’m sad they’re leaving, it’s nice to have more than one gallery because people come and shop then they walk around, so things will change a little bit,” Artists’ Guild member and former president Sharon Tarras said. “We have a meeting in the next few days and we’ll have to talk about restructuring the Art Walk now that we have lost IGW. Maybe make it more of a Holmes Beach shopping event. It’s not just the galleries involved, there are businesses here that participate, and I’m sure they want it to continue.”
The Artists’ Guild confirmed there are no plans to leave the Island and the gallery will remain at its current location in Holmes Beach.
