Human Scale Art Space nonprofit finds permanent home for exhibitions, workshops

Rick Colson.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo

NORTHAMPTON — A local community art organization using multiple ways to emphasize visual arts through workshops and exhibitions has found its new home.

Human Scale Art Space announced the grand opening of its Northampton gallery and workshop space at 245 Main St., Suite 201, with an opening exhibition set for Saturday, July 11, from noon to 8 p.m.

Nearly two years after the nonprofit corporation was founded, Human Scale Art Space now has its dedicated home space for workshops, classes, presentations and exhibitions. The founder of Human Scale Art Space is Rick Colson, a lifelong photographer who started the nonprofit with his wife, Marcia, two years ago.

Since then, the nonprofit has partnered with the Parlor Room and the Iron Horse to use their space for workshops around different visual arts. The new space on Main Street now allows the nonprofit to exhibit and promote some of the best work from artists locally and from afar while continuing to provide its educational offerings.

Colson told Reminder Publishing that the effort to start the nonprofit and open this space stemmed from wanting to put his time and passion toward a worthwhile endeavor. Colson said he grew up in the photography business thanks to his father and has built a multi-decade career as a veteran photographer in various roles with some of the biggest companies in photography. He also started his own company and currently holds an Ed.M from Harvard University.

“That came about as the result of some personal struggles, which had to do with health and aging and thinking a lot about if I have a limited amount of time left, which we all do, of course, what did I really want to do with that time? And I decided to start an arts nonprofit, primarily education-based, but also really wanted to have some capacity to exhibit, and that’s been the biggest challenge since we started, trying to find a way to exhibit,” said Colson. “I’ve been a photographer my whole life. I’ve exhibited pretty widely. I’ve had my own solo show at the Griffin Museum of Photography. Photography, in particular, to me is really best served live. It’s great when you actually see the quality print up close, perhaps even handle a print. The texture of the paper, the quality of the surface, those are all things you really can’t convey online. So, we wanted to try and find a way to exhibit art.”

The 400-square-foot space at 245 Main St. will allow the nonprofit to fulfill its dream of securing a permanent exhibition space. Colson said plans are to exhibit all forms of visual arts, but especially photography, since that’s where the bulk of his knowledge comes from.

“To me, it might as well be the Taj Mahal,” said Colson with a laugh. “I am so excited to actually have a space of our own, it’s just great.”
The nonprofit will continue to offer workshops and educational opportunities alongside its showcases at the new space.

“I think that there is a wide range of abilities, talents, experiences in the arts, in this area, and we see lots of people who are beginning. We see lots of people who have been artists for a long time, but they’re still working all the time on perfecting their arts,” Colson said. “I’ve dealt with over the years countless of the world’s best artists and photographers and can bring some of their expertise to training and education, so why not do that if we have the capacity to?”

The opening exhibit will feature work from Vartus Varadian, a Boston-based painter who spent her early career as a graphic designer and art director for Fortune 500 corporations and leading advertising agencies. She transitioned from the corporate world into fine art after discovering a passion for spontaneous Chinese painting at the Wellness Community of Greater Boston.

Having studied under several Asian masters, Varadian captures the essence of her subjects through deliberate, minimalist brushwork. Today, she shares the joy and meditative calmness of this art form by teaching fellow cancer survivors and painting enthusiasts. Colson, who has known Varadian for a long time, said that the quality of Varadian’s work speaks for itself.

“You owe it to yourself to see her fine paintings up close and in person. We’re delighted to bring her calming work to The Pioneer Valley,” said Colson, adding that readers can discover more of Varadian’s work at vartusdesign.com. “She became really intrigued with kind of the calming power of the particular kind of Chinese-style watercolor paintings that she does. She had an experience with cancer and really turned toward this style of painting watercolors as a means of expressing herself during that time … I’m just honored she was willing to and wanted to do this. Her work is spectacularly good.”

Varadian’s exhibit will be free and open to the public, as will all future exhibits through the nonprofit as they rotate in the future. Human Scale Art Space plans to offer pay-what-you-can prices for attendees, and they plan to never charge a set fee. They are also participants of the Cards to Culture program, which gives EBT users discounted admissions by using their card.

For more information on this upcoming exhibit, future exhibits and workshops, or more about Human Scale Art Space in general, visit humanscaleartspace.org or call 413-206-1855.

Colson said he hopes that visual artists and art lovers from Brattleboro, Vermont, to Springfield, east to Boston, and especially those in the Five College communities, join the grand opening celebration and look to Human Scale Art Space as a new reliable community space for visual arts showcases and workshops in the future.

“As people are painfully aware, these are difficult times in the arts and for nonprofits. In a kind of reaction to these difficult times, there’s a real grassroots swelling of artists, people involved in the arts, people using arts to express themselves as an outlet, a resource for improving declining mental health, for dealing with the stresses and depression related to our present political situation,” Colson said. “I think that it’s an honor to be able to do something in that realm that helps people have an outlet, express themselves, and learn new ways of expressing themselves, improving the ways they can express themselves visually.”