{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Ukiah's Medium Gallery celebrates one-year anniversary","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"July 4, 2022 — The last year has not been kind to the arts, with classes just starting up in person again, patrons hesitant to attend performances and events at galleries, and not a lot of discretionary income available to most people. \r\nBut on July 2, 2021, Medium Gallery in Ukiah’s Pear Tree shopping center opened its doors to the public — and left them open so fresh air could circulate among the masked attendees. KZYX spoke with co-founder Chris Pugh a few hours before the opening of the first show last year, which was called Prologue. He recalled that he and co-founder Lillian Rubie were both stuck at home during the pandemic, “and we both just had a conversation one day abouthow this is the time to do something, because eventually the world would come out of the pandemic, and we wanted to be ready for that.”\r\nThe pandemic isn’t over yet, but eight juried shows and a year later, Medium has sold $17,000 worth of art, all of it going to the more than 250 artists who have displayed their work there. The current show, ENcounter Culture, features a graffitied couch, work by established local artists like Spencer Brewer and Jean Avery North, and a collection of street-sign installations by the enigmatic graffiti artist known as the Velvet Bandit.\r\nLast Friday afternoon, Pugh talked about how he, Rubie, and fellow co-founder Meredith Hudson have kept the gallery open for its first year. It’s not a mystery. “We do our best to keep our expenses low, and we volunteer as much time as we have. A lot of evenings and weekends, putting in a lot of sweat equity.”\r\nHudson, who worked on laying down the floor when the gallery moved in, knows a lot about sweat equity, though she said, “It might be better put as soft-tissue equity at this point. My knees are still recovering. But I definitely was not the only person who put in the floor. We all worked together to rip out old carpet tiles, and really transform the space from the previous state that it was in, which was an old...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}