Angry Pigeon Gallery – Classroom?

The Angry Pigeon Gallery has recently been transformed into an additional classroom space.

“[The Northwest Academy staff] decided to change the gallery into a classroom at the beginning of the year,” David Wagstaff, Dean of Students and Curator of the Angry Pigeon Gallery, said. “I’ve been really busy because the school is growing and I don’t have time to allot with the Pigeon.”

Wagstaff came up with the idea to turn the gallery into a workspace. He said that it has been strange to make the changes, since the Angry Pigeon Gallery has been open purely to host art for so long.

“We have been open as a gallery for five years and we did around 35 art shows,” Wagstaff said. “It operated as an independent entity with student support and parent participation.”

According to Wagstaff, the constant growth of the student body has made it much harder for teachers to find space. The Angry Pigeon Gallery was the only viable option.

“The school has grown so much that the Blue Box Theatre is always booked and our theatre classes need a place to work,” Wagstaff said.

Wrangler Liz Lundblade, who had played a very important role in the Angry Pigeon Gallery, also left at the end of last year which made it much harder to keep it running. She had been responsible for working with the curator, alumni Stuart Larsen, on getting the work hung in the gallery, as well as printing gallery tags and helping transport the art.

Improv, Garage Band and Actor’s Workshop are now working in the Angry Pigeon. Garage Band will also be hosting shows this year in the gallery with full instrumental setup and equipment.

Wade Willis, Arts Coordinator, said there are many benefits to having class there.

“Because there is a stage in the Angry Pigeon, it works very well for us,” Willis said. “As we get into our numerous performances, the stage will prove to be a very valuable asset.”

Although the new location does have some small issues, it is still a very good classroom.

“The only challenges so far are the amount of class time we lose by walking to and from the other campus sites and the dance class in the upstairs studio can create some noise challenges,” Willis said. “All in all, we are very happy to be down there.”

Sam Crispin, a junior, agrees that the gallery is a great place to host theatre-based classes as well as small music shows.

“Our school grew a lot last year so we needed more space, which the Plaza Building that we got last year couldn’t hold,” Crispin said. “[The Angry Pigeon Gallery] has a stage and a sound system as well as good lighting; it works as an arts classroom.”

Although the gallery is now being used as a classroom it will still be hosting one art show this year.

“The one show we are going to do is Sofia Marcus-Meyer’s Humans of Northwest Academy; we will hold an exposition for her in the spring,” Wagstaff said.

Wagstaff believes that once Northwest Academy is able to get more classroom space the gallery will be reinstated.

“I think that when the school gets its own building, the concept of the Angry Pigeon gallery will resurface,” Wagstaff said.

(Additional reporting by Miranda Krump)