Art in the Alley will mark its second First Friday (June 6) with a show of chairs from the Sitting Machine Project.
The “sitting machines” were created by Debbie Smith’s fifth-grade class at Fairview Elementary School in the Elizabethtown School District. (For a story on the project, click the link above.) Jerry Greiner, who designed the original project with Smith in the mid-’90s, explains that the students used only heavy-duty cardboard and construction glue as materials. The tools were those used to construct the Egyptian pyramids: a triangle, a straight-edge, a level and a measuring stick, Greiner says. (A chair by Montana Thompson, from this year’s class, is shown at left.)
Greiner is also one of the filmmakers who have created a documentary on the project, which they’ve currently submitted to the Toronto International Film festival; details are here.
A total of 22 chairs will be on display, including one from the first class in 1995, some from last year’s class and some from this year’s class.
The gallery is located at the rear of 323 N. Queen St. in the Keppel Building, through the Candy Factory Gallery, where many of the chairs will be on display. Ann Warner, artist and gallery proprietor, says she started a gallery because she bought a great black dress and wanted an occasion to wear it. But she
also has in mind a different kind of gallery, with unusual events and art, a place “where artists without a lot of resources have the ability to show their work.” The huge, airy space has been fixed up just enough to feel fresh while retaining traces of the factory it once was; in fact, an original Keppel’s Peppermint candy bar wrapper turned up during the renovation and is now on display.
This month, works by Ann Warner, Judith Johnson, Evan Stallone, Mary Habecker, Larah Loose, Maureen Miller, Jacob Mack-Boll, Sean Quinn, Carol Lawler, Andrea Weaver, Mike Witmer, Bertie Brown, Julius Bentman and Connie Lemieux are on display. Art in the Alley will be open First Friday (June 6) 5-9 p.m. Regular hours are Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Shown here are works by 
Ann Warner (left, part of a series of pastels based on scenes from a trip to Italy) and Judith Johnson (metal sculpture, right, with more works by Ann Warner in the background). Below is a scene from the gallery opening in May, with works by Mike Witmer.
Other notable First Friday doings include the opening of the two Lancaster Summer Arts Festival exhibits: the ever-fabulous Open Art Awards Show at the Lancaster Museum of Art, 135 N. Lime St., and the mind-bending, boundary-expanding Photographic Visions show at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, 204 N. Prince St. Another gallery showing work by (very) young artists will be Annex 24, 24 W. Walnut St., which will feature “Pint Size Painterz.” Music for Everyone will celebrate its first CD release with a party at the Elks Club, 219 N. Duke St. More First Friday details are available here.
(Post edited June 6 to add links)
