Organizations across Rowan County are trying to increase access to, and information about, art installations in Morehead. Officials said a new display in a local business aims to direct locals and visitors to downtown attractions.
The Art Information Center at Cattleman’s Roadhouse features a sampling of art from downtown galleries and information provided by Morehead Rowan County Tourism. Stefan Hayes is the Curator for the Rowan County Courthouse Art Exhibit. Hayes said brochures will encourage people to take a tour of Morehead art offerings.
“We have the Rowan Art Walk which is a self-guided tour that tourism puts out and we’re going to have the brochures there so that, you know, you can go to all of the locations. The Rowan County Arts Center, you can go to Claypool-Young building, the Steve Tirone sculpture concourse, the murals on Main Street. I mean, it’s all-inclusive of the arts,” said Hayes.
Meanwhile, other businesses are identifying under-utilized areas in their buildings and offering them up as gallery space. After a collection completes its rotation at the Rowan County Courthouse, it’s sent to a satellite gallery. Hayes said this was done in part as a response to the idea that art is a quality-of-life issue.
“Being able to look at something beautiful if you’re having a bad day to take you away from it. So, we’re wanting to do that with these satellite galleries that follow the exhibit at the courthouse exhibit. Just having them is giving back to the artist, being able to have more time to have their work out there, hopefully, it gets them more income from those pieces,” said Hayes.
Hayes said people can find more information about satellite galleries at the Rowan County Courthouse. The newest collection of art there is by Stevie Moore. A reception will be held for Moore on Friday, November 10 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
