As of Dec. 31, the Vanderelli Room in Franklinton — a vibrant spot for art shows, performances, community events and art activism — will be no more.
AJ (Alice Jean) Vanderelli, the artist and art activist who opened the gallery in 2014, is reluctantly closing her doors, unable to renew the lease.
“I’m super-bummed, but things change,” Vanderelli said.
“We’ve been so lucky on the West Side to have so many artists. It’s rare to have 200 artists working in the same area … But now, a lot of us have been priced out. I liken it to transplanting a plant. You have to break up the roots and move on.”
Jami Goldstein, vice president of Marketing, Communications & Events with the Greater Columbus Arts Council, said the loss of the Vanderelli Room is “nothing less than tragic” for the West Side.
“She is part of the bedrock of Franklinton and has done such a great service to the artists and the community.”
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Vanderelli, 48, born in Los Angeles, has lived in Columbus on and off since the 1990s. In 2008, she graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design with a degree in painting. She opened the 12,000 square foot Vanderelli Room at 218 McDowell St. in May 2014 and presented her first exhibition, a group show of works by young artists titled “The Dream and the Dreamer,” in November 2014.
Through the years, she has presented a variety of visual and performing-arts events, inviting artists she knew and valued to unveil their works in the space. During the 2020 Columbus protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, she offered the Vanderelli Room as a sanctuary, storage space and meeting ground for art activists.
Vanderelli has received numerous awards including the Michael B. Coleman Franklinton Arts Leadership Award in 2018, the All People Arts Community Arts Award in 2019, Honored Community Artist from ComFest in 2019, and just this November (2023), the Activist Artist Award from Columbus Free Press.
The closing of the Vanderelli Room follows the recent loss of other Columbus galleries, including Hammond Harkins Galleries, Sherrie Gallerie and (Not) Sheep Gallery in the Short North.
“It’s sad because there is so much artistic talent in Columbus,” Vanderelli said. “We were just getting our footing. There was so much energy before the (COVID-19 pandemic) shutdown. We were going fierce.”
Goldstein said the closing of galleries “is complicated — involving real-estate issues and judgement issues. And the pandemic made things much harder for gallery owners.”
“Galleries — both nonprofit and for profit — are critical to our cultural system,” Goldstein said.
For her part, Vanderelli is planning a bit of a sabbatical to work on her own art — painting, assemblages and collages — in her Columbus apartment. Working with artist Charlotte McGraw, she’ll offer free art workshops on selected Fridays in 2024 at We Amplify Voices on Sullivant Avenue.
And she’ll curate one of the many shows she had planned for the Vanderelli Room in 2024, at the WitchLab shop on West Broad Street. The show, titled “Transitions,” will be “an exclamation mark for the Vanderelli Room,” she said.
Goldstein called Vanderelli “a dynamite human being” and said, “I don’t think she’ll stand still.”