David J. Mueller On Paul Henry’s Art Gallery

Statement by David J. Mueller, Paul Henry's Art Gallery (Sept. 30, 2021)

It was 2010 and we had been open for two years as an art gallery and things weren't looking so good. A couple of our early patrons suggested having performance art, an open mic in particular. It was mildly successful to start.  We revised the format to make it fully acoustic with no sound system and added a potluck.  By the 5th Jam Night we had decided to offer it every week on Thursday because people were confusing the weeks.  Around the 6th or 7th Jam a guy from Illinois who called himself Spoo Willoughby came to play.  He became an immediate favorite of the crowd.  No one had seen a performer like him before.  Our crowds began to build.  Spoo returned and brought his friend, Rich Krueger, along. Other more accomplished artists began to populate the performance list.  Fifteen weeks in we got a piano and by that time we typically had 12 to 20 performers each week and audiences of 25 to 50. I can't say that Spoo was entirely responsible for the growth of the popularity of our Jam Night but he certainly was a contributor. 

 After a year we decided to give Spoo his own dedicated event, the Hoe Down and Corn Boil.  We recognized that he knew quite a number of performers from the Illinois side of the line and could draw a top-flight guest artist to play with him at the Corn Boil who would be a fresh face for our Indiana audience and a known attraction for their own Illinois crowd, perhaps bringing a few visitors from across the line.  Guest artists in the past have been Mark Anderson, Rich Krueger, Robin Bieneman, David Druzan, Meredith Judd, John Colson, Brian Cutean, Matt Miller and Dennis Leise. 

Having had some success with Jam Night in 2010 we managed to fend off the wolf at the door by mixing more performance art with visual art.  A monthly Jazz Jam was added to our offerings along with dedicated concert events and even an occasional Punk Rock show.  We also opened the gallery space to host all sorts of activities including a rumba percussion group, a literary reading series, poetry slams, recording sessions, charity fundraisers, protest marches, invited speakers on specific issues, political fundraisers and many personal events from birthdays, showers (baby and wedding), memorials and even weddings among others.  Through this diversification phase we continued to host a regular schedule of visual art shows and receptions, both solo and group formats.

 As more people came to the gallery for many reasons it became apparent we were attracting interest from a wide scope of the community at large and that group was extending its range as we moved along.  It was common to welcome visitors from as far away as Wisconsin and Michigan and even further out than that.  We received major help from print, broadcast and internet media to reach those who had never heard of us.

 We call them Friends of Paul Henry's, loosely defined as visitors to the gallery for one reason or another, in person or on the internet. Some are one-timers, some darken the doorway intermittently and some are true harbingers of just about everything we do and attend as many of our events as they are able.  This is our community.  We value this community and we care about them by trying to offer activities of high interest that may not be readily available locally or in a casual setting like ours.

 Paul Henry's has been an art gallery since October of 2008.  We joined an art community in Hammond that existed before us and has struggled to maintain momentum through the intervening years until now.  Galleries have come and gone.  Art organizations have formed and disbanded.  It has not been easy for any of us including Paul Henry's. The pandemic has not helped. Several other art venues in the north end of Lake County, IN have held on, including our immediate neighbors, the Towle Theater.  EAT, just around the corner, will be a multi-use venue when it fully opens, restaurant and visual and performing arts.

 Hammond has adopted a new Downtown Plan which will dramatically add to the neighborhood while maintaining its historical integrity. Major investment is expected and new projects have already begun and others are set to begin in the next few months.  We are also expecting to have a Downtown Hammond Station on the new north-south spur of the South Shore rail line which will connect us more closely to all points from Chicago to South Bend.               

It is ironic that we are teetering between the continued effects of the pandemic and exciting long-awaited progress in the revitalization of Downtown Hammond.  Our community of gallery friends has been very supportive through the past 18 months to help us survive until now.  We just hosted our first event since March of 2020 this past weekend, the Spoo Willoughby Hoedown and Cornboil.  We felt that we should establish COVID protocols on the group event to protect our clientele as much as possible, and the community at large.  We will do what we can to try to contribute to the elimination of COVID 19 for the benefit of our gallery community and the larger community around us.  We certainly would like to return to a normal routine of bringing joy and fervor to those around us!