More from Alan Barbick

Alan Barbick's Work

Alan Barbick

Alan Barbick is one of the original co-op members and does what I can 'important work'. He travels around the country, visiting and documenting Native American rock art sites. He measures and photographs and uses the data to create scale reproductions of the images on slate and sandstone tablets. The documentation of rock art by people like Alan have lead to Native American groups being reunited with their ancestor's art. As groups of native people on the North American continent were pushed westward by 'settlement', they often lost track of their heritage of where their ancestral roots were specifically. Yet they continued to use the images of their ancestral culture in textiles, pottery, other art, silversmithing, in powwow regalia, and so on. So when those who have studied the rock art take the photos of the images to Native American people living today, they can see if the images match any from their current art. Matches might indicate that the rock art was done by their ancestors, and in this manner, Native American people have found their original homelands and oftentimes, gained access to the land where the rock art images are preserved. Alan's artwork truly makes a difference!

History

First we were a co-op gallery in a tiny rented space in a dental building in Illinois. There were 5 of us who each worked one day a week in exchange for the right to display their art. We had about 2 dozen consignment artists. In 2005, I moved the gallery to an historic building in Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Sometimes, I run the gallery, and sometimes my artists staff it for me. Mineral Point is a special town with over two dozen artist-owned galleries, and many of them, like me, carry the work of many diverse artists.