Chelsea Underground Art Gallery opens downtown

By Lisa Carolin

Alison Mackie appreciates the arts and believes that the Chelsea community shares her enthusiasm. That’s why she opened the Chelsea Underground Art Gallery, which is located at 105 1/2 South Main St..

There is a vast art world, she said, much of it on the coasts, but Mackie has learned that the more “humanist strands of art” are found more in the Midwest. With the new gallery she is taking the opportunity to bring high level art outside the mega-cities. The gallery represents artists Rick De Troyer, who is from Chelsea, Richard Meyer, from New York City, and photographer Jeannette Gregori, from Strasbourg, France.

“The artists I show are very socially aware and reflect humanitarian concerns and the value of diversity, and accordingly want their art in the everyday world,” she said.

Mackie came up with the name Underground Art Gallery because the gallery is literally underground.

“Also, the name is a homage to the high level art world centered in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City and in the fashionable Chelsea district of London,” said Mackie, whose logo shows the London Underground public transport system. “This is how artists think – by evocative words that bring many things together in one.”

Mackie and her husband live in downtown Chelsea having moved to the area last summer from Ypsilanti.

“We fell in love with Chelsea,” she said. “I remember walking down the alleyway that leads to the apartment and a musical group was ambling to the parking lot after a gig somewhere. It was my first sign the arts were alive and well in this town.”

Mackie says that just by walking around town, shopping, and eating at local restaurants, she could tell that Chelsea was a happy place where she would want to live.

“Living here and enjoying the local arts scene is energizing, so opening an art gallery is just a bonus,” said Mackie. “We like that the city sponsors so many popular arts and music festivals and of course as a professional theater, Purple Rose draws visitors from all corners of Michigan and beyond. The artistic and community spirit of Chelsea work together in a dynamic way.”

The Chelsea Underground Art Gallery’s hours are currently Monday-Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mackie says the gallery will stay open later during the warmer months. The gallery’s first exhibition opens May 2 from 5-8 p.m. It’s called “From the Outside Looking In: Diversity and Community.”

There will be a Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting for the new business on May 1 at 10 a.m., she said.