Long-time volunteer reflects as Mendel prepares to close

Despite having no background in art, Coleman worked as the gallery’s first communications person for 17 years. What was initially a casual, volunteer position soon morphed into a full-time job.

“I was made very welcome but I was always older than everybody else on staff. My education was in English literature, so I was the outsider here.”

What followed was years of exhibits. Coleman’s favorite shows include American artist Eric Fischl and when Rothmans, a tobacco company, brought the Michelangelo sculptures to the gallery around 45 years ago.

“Often each show is better than the last, or there’s something different in it,” Coleman said.

But when it comes to memories, Coleman said many of them fall outside the world of art. She fondly recalls when a woman called in to say her husband was angry that his five-year-old daughter declared she had fallen in love with a tour leader and was no longer a “daddy’s girl.” She tells another story of how five staff members were hospitalized after pesticides used on gopher holes seeped in to the offices through a crack in the building.

She said she even saw a landscape architect from Regina hand a child a $100 bill for one of his paintings.

Although Coleman cherishes the building she’s spent more than half her life in, she believes the spirit of the Mendel will continue at the new Remai Modern Art Gallery.

“We’re moving the art works from one building to another, but they belong to the city, and they belong to the citizens, and we own more than 8,000 art works,” she said. “They may be changing the name but it’s still our art gallery.”

The Mendel building is just too small for Saskatoon’s growing population, Coleman said, so it’s time to move on.

“I’ll drive by, sure, and I’ll say ‘oh yeah I remember those days.’ But I’ll keep on going.”

Coleman has written an informal narrative history of the Mendel as a volunteer project. She’ll be signing copies of her book at the gallery on Saturday and Sunday from noon until 5 p.m.

The Remai Modern Art Gallery is set to open in 2016.

bmcadam@rawlco.com

Follow on Twitter: @BreezyBreMc

by Bre McAdam

Long-time volunteer reflects as Mendel prepares to close

What's Trending