Grand Opening of our new showroom

at the Oakhurst Biannual Peddler's Fair

Once again Galwest coordinated an important gallery event with the Oakhurst Peddler's Fair.  Two days a year the fair swells the population of our quiet mountain town, and increases foot traffic at the Oakhurst Shopping Center a hundred fold.  Although some local residents resent the hustle and bustle that the fair creates, it is one of the few times each year that Oakhurst attracts the attention of visitors from outside the  area, and is a golden opportunity for local businesses to bring in a bit of extra cash.

In order to take advantage of this brief influx of humanity, we worked non-stop to prepare the gallery for its Labor Day weekend grand opening.  Our new showroom needed some serious elbow grease to be ready for the event, and we only had two weeks to complete the task. Thanks to the selfless contributions of James Harman, Claudia Nolan, and Gloria Garland, we finished cleaning, painting,  and hanging the show  in the nick of time, and opened our doors for the fair.  

Gloria took time from her busy school schedule to help with the painting, cleaning, and hanging the show.  Gloria is completing her final year at Emperor's College of Chinese Medicine in Santa Monica, and will be opening her practice in the Oakhurst area next year.  

  Although most of the work went without a hitch, late one night James' car was vandalized while parked in front of the gallery, suffering a broken windshield and some impact marks on the drivers side windows.  Sadly, vandalization of property and businesses in the area in not uncommon, and we would like to encourage people to keep an eye out for suspicious activity in the area and report anything unusual to the local sheriff's department.

The opening featured a collection photographs from our recent international trip, including Australian Aboriginal Rock Art, and imagery of temples and religious sculpture from Bali and Thailand. Also shown were pastels and pencil drawings by Claudia Nolan, and a selection from our permanent collection of  works by West Coast ceramicists, sculptors and printmakers.

In addition to opening our showrooms, we also organized a booth featuring a large selection of collectible toys, games, dolls, and action figures.  The booth was a rousing success, and helped to bring customers to our door.  Helping us to man our booth were Gloria's brother, L.A. County Deputy Sheriff Steve Garland, his wife Suzie, and their lovely daughters, Shawna and Stephanie.

We are sorry to say that this year marks the end of a twenty year tradition of holding the event at it's current location in the Oakhurst Shopping Center and Golden Oak Bank parking lots.  The area is shaded by ancient oaks and divided by the northern tributary of the Fresno River, and was once a thriving commercial area.  Now with Oakhurst business focused along highway 41, and at the Old Mill Village and Raley's shopping centers, this centrally located section of town has grown quiet. 

In many ways the area is ideal for creating a "Real Downtown" for Oakhurst, away from the highway traffic.  If the area was developed with care, it could significantly benefit the aesthetic appeal of the town, and the quality of life in Oakhurst.  The current plan to moving this long standing event to a new location in and around the Sears parking lot off Highway 49 will squeeze the last breath of life from this charming part of town, and in our opinion will reduce the appeal of the Peddler's Fair as well.