Live music, a neighborhood wine walk and work from dozens of visual artists are all on the agenda for Kettle Art Gallery’s anniversary weekend.
The Deep Ellum gallery with a DIY ethos is celebrating the big 2-0 on Saturday.
“I don't think there's any real money in having an art gallery,” Frank Campagna, the gallery’s founder, said. “But it's certainly nice to have a place where you can have several hundred of your closest friends over and they don't piss off your neighbors and trash your house.”
Campagna took his punk rock roots — booking bands like the Dead Kennedys, Hüsker Dü and the Butthole Surfers in a warehouse turned underground club — and applied the same spirit to his gallery.
“My concept was like, let's make this for the people,” Campagna said. “Let's make it more of an artist clubhouse, per se.”
The gallery has also given many artists their first shows. The space has also hosted album release parties, film nights and an exhibition highlighting the work of Sour Grapes, a Dallas graffiti crew.
Richard Ross is a Dallas artist who has been involved with the gallery for nearly as long as it's been open.
“Kettle is unique in the fact that it specializes in local and Texas artists,” Ross said. “So it's all homegrown artists working together.”
Stephanie Keller Hudiburg said the gallery is an anchor of the neighborhood.
Keller Hudiburg is the executive director of the Deep Ellum Foundation, which manages the neighborhood’s public improvement district. The organization focuses on safety and security, maintenance and marketing the area, and also partners with the Deep Ellum Community Association to run the Deep Ellum Community Center.
“What I love about Kettle is it is a hub of community. It does bring people together, but it does so in really creative and beautiful ways,” she said. “It's something where you can tell the nights that Kettle's got an event or a program because you can see just a diversity of people coming together to gather, different ages, different races, different types of folks coming together to experience art.”
In its two decades in business, Campagna said that there is a lot to be proud of, but helping visual artists flourish in their careers is at the top.
From 4 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 22, Kettle Art will host an exhibition of works from artists – or instigators as Campagna calls them – who have helped make the gallery what it is today. The Deep Ellum Wine Walk, which was founded by Campagna’s wife, Paula Harris, will run concurrently.
After the reception, Campagna encourages visitors to head across the street to take part in the Deep Ellum block party where more than 100 group and solo acts will keep the music flowing from 6 p.m. on Nov. 22 to 2 a.m. on the 23rd. Other block party festivities, including a scavenger hunt and fish fry fundraiser, start at noon.
Kettle Art hosts its 20th anniversary exhibition from 4-7 p.m. Nov. 22 at 2650 Main St., Dallas. The Discover Deep Ellum Wine Walk, with a glass designed by Frank Campagna, runs concurrently; tickets are $20 in advance; $25 same day. Live music from Big Techs and Madison King starts at 7 p.m. at 2647 Main St., Dallas as part of the Deep Ellum Block Party. The block party is free. Register here.
