New gallery tackles a hot topic

Director Todd Bartel amid works in "Sublime Climate," the second of a three-part show in the Cambridge School of Weston's new public gallery. (Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff)

It's unlikely that anyone would stumble upon the Thompson Gallery by chance.

Opened in October by the Cambridge School of Weston, the public exhibition space on the private high school's campus is difficult to find even for those who know about it. But this is one off-the-beaten-track art venue well worth using MapQuest to get there.

It's not just that the gallery is housed in the school's gorgeous new, environmentally friendly Garthwaite Center for Science and Art (replete with a landscaped "green" roof, soaring wooden columns, and a miniature indoor wetland). Nor is its appeal limited to the sunlight that spills into the gallery through its two-story-high glass front (which provides passive solar heating). Rather, it's more that this tiny upstart has verve.

Its debut show takes on no less a topic than global warming with a three-part, eight-month exhibition featuring 42 professional artists from five countries - pretty gutsy for a one-room newcomer. However, Todd Bartel, the gallery's director and a member of the school's art faculty, said the large scope of the show wasn't originally planned.

"I posted a call to artists online on Artforum in January of '07 and I figured maybe I'd get 20 applications that I'd curate down to 10. But within 24 hours my e-mail shut down. It was overloaded with images and resumes from artists," said Bartel, 45. "I had to beg them here to expand my mailbox - not once but three times - because it kept closing down. I was blown away. Who would have thought a no-name gallery on a school campus would get applications from all over the world?"

It seems Bartel hit a nerve. "I thought that maybe there weren't that many artists working on global warming, but that's not true at all," he said. "The artists we're dealing with for this project really care about it, and many have gone really out of their way to get their work here."

Weston artist Linda Bond took a risk on the gallery, not only because of the show's subject but because Bartel impressed her. "Todd came over to my studio, looked at my work, and started talking about it in a way that made clear that he really understood what I was doing in a substantial way," she said. "So I thought this would be a good opportunity to get to know him, because he seems really committed to making the space a viable place for work and for dialogue."

Make that extended dialogue. It was Bartel who pushed for expanding the show to eight months and including more artists. "I don't like drop-in-the-bucket kind of things," he said. "I'm so glad that when Martin Luther King Day rolls around" that the Cambridge School "has already been doing related things and that we continue to do related things. So it's a much longer focus than sort of a compulsory moment of reflection. In the same way, global warming is something . . . that needs more than just a moment."

Part I of the exhibition has closed, but "Part II: Alarm, Projecting Global Change" runs through March 14. In it, 14 artists working in a wide range of media tap into fears about climate change. Haunting images and films depict vanishing shorelines and endangered water supplies. Artist books address species loss and melting glaciers. A pointy glass sculpture encases a branch as if it were the last twig on the planet. With each flap of their wings, mechanical insects in specimen jars emphasize that nature once lost cannot be replaced with technology.

But all is not nightmares. A reverence for natural beauty and even some humor run through the show. "It's not about scaring anyone or pointing fingers or even providing solutions. It's about asking questions," said Bartel. "I see it as a landscape show. It's just that the landscape is changing."

Among the participants in Part II are Provincetown artist and provocateur Jay Critchley, who made headlines last summer when he encrusted an entire condemned Cape Cod motor inn with sand and made it a roadside art attraction. Pieces contributed by inventor-artist Greg Blonder of New Jersey include a creepy picket-fenced black "lawn" made of moving, light-sensitive "motion plastic" - a comment on the price of our indulgent lifestyles.

The show's roster includes two Pennsylvania artists, Karen Antonelli and Michelle Wilson, Christopher Cassidy of North Carolina, Sarah Cunningham of Roxbury, Jynx macTavish (California), Margaret Noble and Edyta Stepien (both of Chicago), Paul Roux (Brookline), Paul Stout (Utah), Sarah Sutro (Thailand), and Joy Wulke (Connecticut).

"Part III: Symbiosis: Grappling with Our Natural Resources" runs March 31 to June 9. After that, the gallery's plans are wide open. All six members of the school's art faculty will take turns curating shows with Bartel's assistance. Photography teacher Anne Rearick is planning a retrospective of photographs by the late Les Mastenbrook of Concord, a 2000 graduate of the Cambridge School. Bartel himself hopes to curate shows on nano art and brain theory.

"Our students are busy learning how to express themselves, and if they can see what the contemporary art world is doing, it makes for a much richer experience for them," he said. "And by opening the gallery to the public, we can open up that rich experience to the community."

"Sublime Climate Part II" runs through March 14 and "Part III" runs March 31-June 9 at Thompson Gallery, the Cambridge School of Weston, 45 Georgian Road, Weston. Open weekdays, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., or by appointment. Free. Call 781-398-8316 or visit csw.org/arts/thompsongallery.

LARKIN IN FRANKLIN: What with all the mesmerizing slide guitar playing, the lustrous vocals, and inventive song-writing, the buzz is building about the new CD by Patty Larkin, "Watch the Sky." It has already garnered a "critics pick" from the New York Times and nods from Billboard et al, describing her songs as "masterful," "impressive," and "ethereal."

But Larkin, who tends to sell out in these parts, has only three area shows scheduled for her current tour, so fans may want to call ahead for tickets to her Saturday show at Franklin's Circle of Friends Coffeehouse. Singer-songwriter Ellis, who recently made a splash at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, opens.

Patty Larkin performs 8 p.m. Saturday at the Circle of Friends Coffeehouse, First Universalist Society of Franklin meetinghouse, 262 Chestnut St., Franklin. Tickets: $20. Call 508-528-2541 or visit circlefolk.org.

BERLIN GOES STRICTLY BALLROOM: If all those Jane Austen dramas on PBS have you in the mood to attend a 19th-century country ball, Berlin has a dance floor for you.

The town's Art and Historical Society is hosting a Leap Year Ball tomorrow in the newly restored 1870 Town Hall. The event revives a social tradition from the 1850s, and, to set the scene, vintage dresses will be displayed and period writings will be read. In turn, all proceeds will go to reviving another town treasure, the 1750 Bullard House, which the society is restoring.

Fancy dress is suggested, as are dancing shoes. Tahanto Regional High School's Swing Band and Jazz Combo will provide the music.

"We're thrilled at the prospect of using a 150-year-old tradition to preserve another building in the town's history," said Richard Wheeler, president of the society.

Leap Year Ball, 8 p.m. tomorrow at 1870 Town Hall, 12 Woodward Ave., Berlin. Suggested donation: $10. Call 978-838-2942 or visit townofberlin.com.

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