Steeple Gallery and the creative center
The golden light of a sunny weekend morning diffuses through the stained glass windows, bathing Steeple Gallery’s main space in a warm, comfortable orange. The same hushed respect that the building had commanded for over a century while serving Dorchester’s community as a place of worship for Peace United Church of Christ’s congregation still emanates through the gallery, serving a similar, though redefined, purpose. Presented in handcrafted alcoves are numerous and varied works of art on display for any who wish to peruse the offerings in the distinct setting. From paintings and etchings to pottery and woodwork and wildlife photography, the variety of work on display is, in one word, impressive, and perhaps somewhat unexpected to find in a rural town of under 1,000 residents. The quality, meanwhile, speaks for itself.
The unique set up of Steeple Gallery is immediately eye-catching, the notion of a church-turned-art-gallery novel enough to draw one’s attention to equally engrossing pieces it puts on display. The Creative Center next door offers classes and workshops for interested parties to try their hand at and grow their own artistic interests.
Providing both a space for local artists to display their work and to give those intrigued by various art forms a chance to learn about them and create their own pieces was part of the driving force behind owners Barry and Cheryl Plautz’s purchase of the church in 2022.
“Having a space like this is really important in a rural area,” Barry said of the gallery. “It’s important everywhere, but in a rural area like this here, where the focus is on outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, ATVing, skiing, all these other sporting events things like that, there are so many creative people that just don’t have a venue to express themselves or to follow the creativity that they want to. They can feel kind of trapped because they just don’t have the resources or an outlet.”
“For the person that just wants to be quiet and create things, it’s really up to them,” he added. “They have no place to go except their own house to go to.”
The couple, who moved into the area from Hartford 12 years ago, had run into that problem themselves and had been searching for a solution. Cheryl is a full time artist who has many of her acrylic, oil and watercolor paintings, as well as scratch board works and wildlife photos now on display at the gallery. Barry has created many of the pottery pieces after getting introduced to the art form 30 years ago thanks to his friend Robert Caldart. However, they found the options for expressing their creative sides were limited after moving north.
“When we moved up here, we started looking for a studio or gallery space of some sort,” Barry said. “My wife works out of the house and I have a pottery shop at the house, so we do it all there, but we wanted to expand it and share it with other people and there just wasn’t a decent venue anywhere. The galleries kind of come and go and so we had some challenges trying to get stuff in front of the public. So we said, why don’t we try to find a spot for ourselves?”
It took some time to finally land on the perfect fit, but as soon as the Dorchester church hit the market, they knew that they had finally found what they were looking for. There were still some adjustments that needed to be made to transform the space into the gallery it is today, but the vision was there.
The church, after the congregation of the Peace United Church of Christ decided to disband following the retirement of pastor Doris Rueben, was put up for sale in 2022 and the Plautz’s purchased the building in November of that year. It took a better part of the year for Barry to refurbish the space, as much of the work had to be done during his free time after working days at a software company or on weekends. The gallery was able to open its doors to the public in November of 2023.
Making the gallery a unique space conducive to the appreciation of the work on display there was one of the primary goals behind the year of set up. Not finding the design of other galleries to be particularly creative or even a productive set up for the viewer, Barry decided to go with a different design philosophy for Steeple Gallery.
“Every art gallery that I’ve ever seen has always just been rows of stuff. Rows down the middle and rows around the outside,” he said. “Or this huge room with nothing but space and then sporadic pieces. And it’s like, I don’t like that feel. That feel is so impersonal. I wanted it to feel like this is an interesting place. So when you walk in here, I’m hoping that people go ‘this is a complicated space.’” “It’s almost kind of like going through an art maze,” Barry added. “Not a complicated art maze that you get lost in, but as you walk into each of the cubicles, you don’t see the rest of the world. And that’s really important to me, that anytime anyone sees something, they have the ability to just absorb what’s in front of them without distraction. So I built it so they could do that. There could be seven, eight people around you, and unless you are all standing in the same space, you’re not being distracted by the people around you.”
Cheryl’s paintings are heavily featured in the gallery’s central alcoves, with many of them focusing on realistic depictions of nature or animals, though works on other subjects fill out the display. Her photography, also largely on wildlife, can be found adorning the outer walls. Barry’s pottery, as well as a significant collection of Caldart’s own clay works and local artist Kevin Doberstein’s contemporary wood sculptures, help fill out the current ensemble. Adding the work of more local artists, either to the gallery itself or to the gift shop for smaller pieces like jewelry, is something Barry hopes to see more of in the future.
In addition to the gallery providing a location for local artists to display their work, the workshops offered at the Creative Center will give opportunities for people in the area to explore a number of different art forms.
Housed in the church’s old meeting hall, the space has been revamped to better suit the needs of the classes that are offered there. One-and-done classes, such as wine glass etching, alcohol ink painting, or a pottery “Play with Clay Day” are single sessions that don’t call for a lot of commitment but can serve as an introduction and those that sign up can often leave with something that they’ve created. An eight-week pottery course will give those who want to continue to build upon what they have learned an opportunity to dig deeper into the nuances of the hobby.
Also offered at the Creative Center is a class centered around raku pottery, which is created by a specific firing process originating in Japan. The process begins by removing the piece from the kiln while it is still hot and then setting it in sawdust or paper before quickly putting it under a bucket or closing the container it is in, thereby reducing the amount of oxygen that the piece is exposed to. The resulting effect on the glaze creates interesting patterns and colors that are difficult to predict, with each piece coming out of the process with a different and unique look.
Classes on photography are also available, with Barry sharing his years of expertise as a professional photographer, his prior career before his current foray into information technology.
Giving people the opportunity to explore these different art forms and giving them an outlet for creativity and expressing themselves is important.
“Art is an expression on an individual basis that allows you to convey an idea or emotion to others in your work,” Barry said. “There’s so many ways of doing that, so I think it’s super important that people have the ability to pursue that so that they grow within themselves. The more I work on pottery, the better person I am in other aspects of my life. It’s not all high and mighty concepts of art; it’s really all at that very personal level.”
He used an analogy to further describe how art can help people by making them think in a different way, rather than just as a creative outlet. “It’s a lot like complicated math for some people. I heard somebody say once, ‘why do we have to learn this stuff, we’re never going to use it,’ right? Well, it’s not because you’re going to use trigonometry, it’s because you’re learning how to solve a problem in a way that’s outside of your comfort zone. That’s the skill that you’re learning. You’re not learning to be a physicist; maybe one person in the class is, but not everybody. But everybody should be learning how to solve a problem using a different way of thinking. And art is like that too. You’re solving a problem using a different way of thinking, but the problem is ‘nothing is there, I want something to be there.’ That’s the problem, it’s a different kind of problem. So it’s really all about self-growth, if you’re going to sum it all up.”
“When you do artwork, it’s something that you grasp and grow,” he added. “It builds character and it builds skills within yourself.”
Steeple Gallery is open to the public on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or by private appointment. The Creative Center workshops are typically run between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays and interested parties can go to www.steeplegallery.org to find out more about upcoming classes or events.
