Photographer Alison Shaw’s blog on April 21 featured a post by partner Sue Dawson. “I brag about never getting even one day off during our busy season, which starts every year on Memorial Day weekend,” she wrote. “So there’s gotta be a really good reason for me to open our doors three weeks ahead of schedule.” The reason, she went on, was the inaugural show by a group of nine photographers that Alison has been mentoring since 2013. The show would be the culmination of the time the nine men and women spent with Ms. Shaw, and with one another.
Judging by the packed space and the enthusiastic crowd, the show — which opened at the Alison Shaw Gallery in Oak Bluffs on Sunday, May 3 — was a roaring success.
The nine artists — Karla Bernstein, Doug Burke, Diane Collins, Estelle Disch, Kate Griswold, Steven Koppel, David Matthews, Gwen Norton, and Jean Schnell — are showcasing a diverse selection of work in both black and white and color, with subjects ranging from wild horses to the deserted Marine Hospital in Vineyard Haven. The show will remain up until May 22.
Each of the photographers first took a workshop with Ms. Shaw before joining her new Mentorship program, which affords each of them private sessions with Ms. Shaw and Ms. Dawson regularly over a long term. They also meet for group retreats on-Island.
Ms. Shaw said to The Times on Sunday, “The problem with the workshop is you are totally immersed for a week and then you go back to your real life and don’t touch your camera for the next three months. This is forcing them to stick with it and evolve.”
“Our first Advanced Mentorship group is affectionately known as our ‘guinea pigs,’” Ms. Dawson said, “since they’ve been with us from the very beginning of our Mentorship program in 2013.”
In addition to the one-on-one focus that is a feature of the program, Ms. Dawson added, ”It’s very much a peer experience.”
One of the cornerstones of each of the mentorship retreats is the mastermind sessions: Each person has a half hour to present whatever they want — prints, projected images, a website design, writing. Then, she said, “they have a 30-minute period to get feedback from the entire group. We get to know everyone very deeply.”
The photographers reported on Sunday that there has been a rewarding evolution of getting to know one another over time. They created a closed group on Facebook that has been invaluable as a source of support, dialogue, and community. They know each other’s strengths, and to whom to go for specific kinds of questions.
Ms. Shaw said, “I get emotional … because I want them to succeed as a group, but also individually. So I’m in their court trying to help facilitate, do whatever I can do to bring out in them [what is needed] to bring out their goals.”
Group member Gwen Norton, who will also be showing at the National Arts Club in New York City, added, “I’ve taken a number of classes with ‘names,’ and I never felt valued … or worth the investment. It was [Ms. Shaw’s] workshop that made me feel I’m worth taking a risk on.”
The Mentorship program has been a work-study of sorts on how to prepare for and mount one’s own show, said Ms. Dawson: “From choosing what to hang, to writing an artist statement, deciding how to present their work, and creating a catalog of their photographs. They also had to create business cards, learn the social media piece and truly delve into every aspect that goes into having an exhibit.” Each artist honed Photoshop skills so they could achieve what they had in their mind’s eye, which, Ms. Dawson said, gave them appreciation for printing as being an integral part of the exhibition process.
When it came time to hang the show the artists drew numbers to decide who was going to exhibit where on the walls of the Alison Shaw Gallery.
What’s next? In addition to Gwen Norton’s New York show, Estelle Disch will participate in Cambridge Open Studios, Kate Griswold had a major show in Ipswich six months ago, Steven Koppel was just filmed for segment on Chronicle which will run in May, Karla Bernstein was published in Connecticut Magazine, Doug Burke was in a group show at Featherstone and Dave Matthews will continue a long-term project. Ms. Shaw said she is looking forward to seeing Jean Schnell’s Quaker project become a book and museum exhibit and seeing how Diane Collins’s work takes shape now that she officially retired last Friday.
Mentorship exhibit is open Monday to Saturday, May 4 – 22, from 11 am to 4 pm, and Sundays from 1 to 4 pm. Each photographer’s show prints and other matted work for sale. Alison Shaw Gallery, 88 Dukes County Avenue, Oak Bluffs; 508-696-7429; alisonshaw.com.
