Pond Gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Location/Address: 100 W Center St., Ste 002, Fayetteville, AR 72701
Hours: Saturdays 10-1, or by appointment
Website: www.pond.gallery
Founded by: Ty Barnes, Christian Schultz, Taylor Loftin
Operated by: Ty Barnes, Christian Schultz, Taylor Loftin
Opened: May 2024
Most Recent Exhibitions: Sandbox Psychology by Natalie Conway
Upcoming Exhibition: Silent Zone by Michael Watson

Isabella Marie Garcia: I’d like to know more about the founders, the name and conceptualization of Pond Gallery, the physical location in downtown Fayetteville, and the reality that it is a basement-level space below a jeweler. What is the origin story of the gallery and why did you choose this location?

Taylor Loftin: Pond is Taylor Loftin, Ty Barnes, and Christian Schultz—best friends and artists. We moved to Fayetteville in 2018 for grad school and stuck around. Our space was formerly Meus Floral, a flower shop on the square co-founded by Ty’s wife, Molly. In 2024, Meus moved around the corner, and we dove headfirst into the basement that is Pond.

We’d been daydreaming about opening a space for years, and it’s nothing short of a miracle to be situated on the downtown square. With backgrounds in fabrication, art handling, and woodworking, we built the space out ourselves and began splitting rent out of pocket. Ouch!

Pond’s name is a nod to our favorite leisure activity: fishing the ponds, lakes, and creeks of our region. Ty and I grew up together in Jackson, MS, where we often fished, BBQed, and communed around the pond. It’s a modest, communal space—a micro-ecosystem. It is Southern living.

IMG: Is there an awareness of DIY, artist-run spaces in Fayetteville or in Arkansas that were aware of prior to beginning Pond Gallery? If so, how did that influence how you began Pond and continue to run the programming? If not, were there spaces and artists that you looked to for guidance when beginning Pond Gallery in 2024?

TL: We are hyper-aware of the lack of art spaces in Northwest Arkansas. Several of the DIY spaces that have kept the community energized over the years have recently disappeared. Affordable space is very difficult to come by. You’ll hear this sentiment all over the country—it’s a college-town thing, an economy thing, a crisis thing.

We have close ties to Memphis; Tops Gallery has been a major influence on the way we think about space, programming, and formalizing an artist-run space. Good Weather in Little Rock/Chicago is another gallery worth aspiring to. Both have strong, distinct eyes and, after more than a decade of committed work, have maintained their punk attitude.

IMG: As with any artist-run space, there are hopes alongside challenges and fears in the execution of how it will support those in the community, especially outside of the formal institution setting of a museum or university. I particularly love how your mission statement hones in on creating “a small biome of creativity that garners and energizes communal, artistic exchange.” What have been the joys, blessings, challenges, and upsets along this journey of running Pond Gallery?

TL: The reward is in the charged atmosphere of each opening. There’s nothing better than a packed room of artists and art lovers connecting over a new show. Compared to other cities, that experience is few and far between here; it feels like a real privilege to provide a little artistic pulse.

Predictably, the challenge is time and money. We all have full-time jobs and families. Pond is an extracurricular activity that requires some serious heavy lifting, with little to no financial compensation. We make personal sacrifices to keep Pond afloat. With this in mind, there is a lot that we can’t do, and saying “no” to folks is difficult—but also a necessary part of keeping the project sustainable. Burnout is real.

IMG: Talk to me about the previous, present, and future exhibitions and programming. How does Pond Gallery go about selecting what artists to feature in the space?

TL: Southern artists and their narratives have a special place in our hearts. During these initial years, we’ve been especially interested in showing artists from—or affiliated with—Arkansas who now reside in other cities. This allows us to present Arkansas stories while connecting Fayetteville to other major cultural centers. Our current exhibition is Sandbox Psychology by Fayetteville-born, Philadelphia-based artist Natalie Conway. It’s been something of a homecoming for her.

That being said, we hesitate to place strict parameters on our program. We’ve shown NYC-based artists and international artists. Our next exhibition is a mini-retrospective by self-taught painter Michael Watson from Memphis. This summer, we’ll host an exhibition of artist-made birdhouses featuring 50+ artists from all over the US, plus Mexico, Japan, and England. In the fall, we’ll welcome our first guest curator, along with a few short-term, pop-up exhibitions that we’re excited about.

IMG: How do you hope to continue supporting Arkansas-born and local artists in the upcoming year?

TL: The plan is to keep on keeping on until we can’t!