The Brand Library
Opening Reception
6th Annual Open Studio Tour | Brand Library Art Galleries, Glendale | July 17 – August 13, 2010
Fourteen La Mancha Gallery artists. One best piece each. A companion exhibition to the Glendale Open Studio Tour — sustained across nearly four weeks at one of Glendale's most beloved cultural institutions.
The Gallery in the Library
The Brand Library is not a neutral backdrop. It is a cultural anchor — a place where Glendale's residents come to learn, to read, to encounter ideas. To place the work of fourteen artists in those galleries, alongside the library's daily life, was to make the argument that La Mancha Gallery has always wanted to make: that significant art does not require a specialized context. It requires the public. And at the Brand Library, the public was already there.
La Mancha Gallery's exhibition at the Brand Library was a companion to its Chess Park installation on July 24 — two expressions of the same commitment, in two distinct public spaces, across nearly a month of the Glendale summer. Where Chess Park offered a single afternoon of open, unmediated encounter, the Brand Library exhibition offered something different and equally valuable: sustained access. Library visitors could return to the work across four weeks of daily hours, encountering it in the natural rhythm of a space they already inhabited and trusted.
Fourteen artists — each contributing one of their best pieces — filled the Brand Library Art Galleries with fifty works under consignment. The opening reception on Sunday, July 18, from 3 to 5 PM, brought artists and community members together at the library in the spirit that has defined the Open Studio Tour since its inception: art made accessible, artists made present, and a community given the opportunity to gather around the work its most creative members have made. Free to the public. Open to everyone. Exactly as it should be.
"Significant art does not require a specialized context. It requires the public. At the Brand Library, the public was already there."
— Omar Holguin, Curator & Director, La Mancha Fine ArtsThe Exhibition at a Glance
| Exhibition | Brand Library Opening Reception 6th Annual Open Studio Tour — La Mancha Gallery Group Exhibition |
| Reception | Sunday, July 18, 2010 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM · Free to the public |
| Exhibition Run | July 17 – August 13, 2010 During Brand Library open hours |
| Venue | Brand Library Art Galleries 1601 West Mountain Avenue (between Grandview and Western) Glendale, CA 91206 |
| Companion Event | Glendale Open Studio Tour at Chess Park Saturday, July 24, 2010 · 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM 227 N. Brand Boulevard, Glendale, CA 91202 |
| Presented By | La Mancha Gallery Curator — Omar Holguin, Director & Owner |
| Artists | María Teresa Chávez Montes, David Taveras, Natalie Franco, Eddie Jelinet, Andrea Vargas, Marina K. Rehrmann, Marcus A. Collins, D. Ashe, Minas Halaj, Samvel Hallaj, Benjamin Murguia, Baron Norris, Silvio Sangiorgi, Novei Beige |
| Works | 50 works under consignment — one best piece per artist |
| Sponsors | City of Glendale Community Services & Parks Department Arts & Culture Commission · Brand Library · Associates of Brand Library & Art Center |
| Admission | Free — everyone is welcome |
What the Exhibition Offered
One Best Piece Per Artist
Fourteen La Mancha Gallery artists each contributed one of their best pieces — a curatorial constraint that elevated the selection and gave each work the full weight of its maker's considered choice. Fifty works in total, displayed across nearly four weeks.
Opening Reception — July 18
The opening reception on Sunday, July 18, from 3 to 5 PM brought artists and community members together at the Brand Library — a gathering in the spirit that has defined the Open Studio Tour since its inception: art made accessible, artists made present.
Nearly Four Weeks of Access
July 17 through August 13 — the exhibition ran during the library's open hours across nearly four weeks, giving residents the opportunity to return to the work, to bring others, and to encounter it in the natural rhythm of a space they already trusted.
The Brand Library Art Galleries
Located at 1601 West Mountain Avenue between Grandview and Western — one of Glendale's most beloved cultural institutions, embedded in the daily life of the community and visited not by art world audiences but by residents for whom the library is already home.
Companion to Chess Park
A sustained companion to La Mancha Gallery's Chess Park installation on July 24 — two expressions of the same curatorial commitment across two distinct public spaces, together spanning nearly a month of the Glendale summer.
Free & Open to All
No admission. No reservation. The exhibition and reception were entirely free — sponsored by the City of Glendale, the Arts & Culture Commission, Brand Library, and the Associates of Brand Library & Art Center. Everyone was welcome.
The Roster
Sixteen La Mancha Gallery artists — each contributing one of their best pieces to the Brand Library Art Galleries, with fifty works under consignment displayed across nearly four weeks of public access.
María Teresa Chávez Montes
David Taveras
Natalie Franco
Eddie Jelinet
Andrea Vargas
Marina K. Rehrmann
Marcus A. Collins
D. Ashe
Minas Halaj
Samvel Hallaj
Benjamin Murguia
Baron Norris
Silvio Sangiorgi
Novei Beige
Xavier Yarto
Ivan Holguin
How the Exhibition Was Built
La Mancha Gallery approached the Brand Library exhibition as a sustained companion to the Chess Park installation — building a month-long public presence in one of Glendale's most trusted cultural institutions, through the deliberate selection of one defining work per artist.
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Phase 01
Curatorial Framework & Artist Selection
Fourteen artists selected from La Mancha Gallery's roster for the Brand Library exhibition — each invited to contribute one of their best pieces, a constraint that demanded considered selection and ensured each work carried the full weight of its maker's considered choice. The roster assembled to represent the breadth of the gallery's practice and the diversity of its community of artists.
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Phase 02
Installation at Brand Library Art Galleries
Fifty works installed at the Brand Library Art Galleries, 1601 West Mountain Avenue between Grandview and Western, Glendale — a space embedded in the daily life of the community and visited by residents for whom the library is already a trusted part of their lives. The installation designed to place each work in genuine dialogue with the library's ongoing cultural programming.
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Phase 03
Opening Reception — July 18
The opening reception held on Sunday, July 18, from 3 to 5 PM — bringing artists, community members, and visitors together at the Brand Library at the launch of the exhibition. Free and open to the public, the reception was designed as a genuine gathering rather than an institutional event: artists present, work on the walls, community in the room.
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Phase 04
Month-Long Public Access — July 17 to August 13
The exhibition ran during library open hours across nearly four weeks — giving residents the opportunity to encounter the work on their own time, return with others, and experience it in the natural rhythm of a space they already inhabited. A sustained public presence that extended the Open Studio Tour far beyond a single afternoon.
A Month in the Life of a City
The Brand Library exhibition stands in the La Mancha Gallery archive as the sustained half of the gallery's Open Studio Tour commitment — the part that did not end when the afternoon at Chess Park did. By placing fourteen artists and fifty works in a library that residents return to week after week, La Mancha Gallery ensured that the sixth annual tour was not simply an event but a presence — something Glendale could live alongside for nearly a month of its summer.
Together, the Chess Park installation and the Brand Library exhibition form a complete expression of what La Mancha Gallery believes public art engagement can be: immediate and sustained, singular and extended, in a park on a Saturday and in a library through August. The community that came to Chess Park on July 24 could return to the Brand Library the following week. The library visitor who encountered the work by chance on a Tuesday afternoon in August was encountering the same commitment, in a different form, in a space that already belonged to them.
Exhibited
Consignment
Public Access
Glendale
Significant art does not require a specialized context. It requires the public. At the Brand Library, the public was already there.
La Mancha Gallery
Curator & Founder — Omar Holguin
Brand Library Opening Reception | 6th Annual Open Studio Tour Group Exhibition
July 17 – August 13, 2010 | Brand Library Art Galleries, 1601 West Mountain Avenue, Glendale, CA 91206
Sponsored by the City of Glendale · Arts & Culture Commission · Brand Library & Art Center