Chairs to occupy center stage at Pendleton Art Center for today's grand opening

Pendleton Art Center grand opening

MIDDLETOWN— When the Pendleton Art Center celebrates its grand opening today, visitors may sit in a particularly colorful chair — if they can find one to sit in.

Last month’s soft opening drew upwards of 1,000 people, by City Manager Judy Gilleland’s count. Today’s opening stands to draw even more.

“It should be pretty spectacular — you can see how the concept works now,” said Jim Verdin, Pendleton’s founder, who will attend the opening ceremonies. “Once a month it works out really well.”

Already, the Pendleton Art Center is fostering collaboration among local arts groups. The Middletown Arts Center, 130 N. Verity Parkway, chipped in by having several of its artists paint decorative chairs, which can be seen at the front entrance and in the area of the All About You cafe.

Two of the chairs were designed by a married Middletown couple, Tyler and Jessica Castells.

First, Jessica Atkinson Castells, who has served as a model at the Arts Center, took up the project and began painting her chair in a vibrant, tie-dye pattern.

“I heard about the paint-a-chair project, and I thought it sounded like fun,” she said.

“She started painting hers, and I thought, ‘I’m in,’ ” Tyler Castells said.

Jessica Castells replied, “He followed me after I started doing finger painting,” referring to the swirls she was making in her patterns.

“I have a liberal arts degree and I have an art background ... I like things that are happy, bright and colorful,” she said.

By contrast, her husband went for a simpler design — what he called a “CMYK” painting, in reference to the color model. His chair is predominantly white and he used that to establish a contrast between the paint and the wood pattern of the chair. He cut out a shape and used wood stain on that to offset the white.

“He’s more minimalist, I’m more impressionistic,” Jessica Castells said.

Other chairs at the center include one with attached silverware, by Leslie Pinto; one adorned with Motown Records designs by Jean Vance; and a stream with fish, by Karen Ng.

The grand opening will include entertainment provided by the Performing Arts Academy.