East Window: The Little Gallery That Could

East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colo., is quickly establishing its reputation amongst the NoBo Arts District as Boulder’s “Library of Alexandria,” an irreverent ode to nonconformity. A great deal of time, energy, and resources have been invested to make East Window what it is today, and the programming is curated with thoughtful diligence. East Window brings awareness to world issues through supporting artistic and cultural expression.

More than a gallery, East Window is an independent arts organization. Founded in May 2020, East Window started out as a single window on the east side of the Boulder Bicycle warehouse building on North Broadway.

According to founding director and visual artist Todd Edward Herman, the goal of East Window is to bring visibility to historically marginalized artists who exist in all communities of color, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, LGBTQ+, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and people with disabilities and chronic illness. 

East Window’s resolve is to promote the art and culture of these underrepresented communities and provide a platform for people from all backgrounds to share their hearts and minds through exhibitions and public programming. In other words, East Window is bucking the status quo in ways that make one “question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling.” The artists and exhibitors that show at East Window turn a mirror on the world and reflect back to it the impacts of discrimination, colonization, and the harsh realities of living in a society fueled by capitalism.

East Window is an annex to the studio of the visual artist and founder. His work has generated collaborations with artists on books, films, performances, and exhibitions around the world. Herman is a co-founder and long-time collaborator with Sins Invalid, a performance project that incubates, celebrates, and centralizes artists with disabilities, artists of color, and queer and gender-variant artists. Most recently, Herman was interviewed by Kevin Hoth for The NoBo Artist Podcast.

Since moving to its current location at 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2, in Boulder, the passionate team at East Window has curated more than 30 events, exhibits, installations, and workshops. Working notably with Kali Spitzer, Alex Stark, Yvens Alex Santil, and The Plentywolf Singers, East Window also offers a one-of-a-kind reading room full of a variety of titles and many local and regional authors.

Yellow Scene was able to chat with Herman about East Window’s origins and his vision for the gallery’s future. 

Let’s talk a little bit about your background. This is where you can share anything that isn’t in your bio on the EW website (I will also be pulling from there).

In my personal artistic work, I try to question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling. I examine how images compose, enforce, or undermine—rather than simply reflect—ideas of history, dominant values, authenticity, and authorship. To a large degree, this informs much of what happens at East Window.

What motivated you to open East Window?

The studio space I was renting in Feb. 2020 had a 5ft x 8ft east-facing window. With the pandemic and subsequent shutdown in March of that same year, we all began to avoid being inside public spaces, this of course, included art galleries.

I informally began to contact friends and colleagues to see if they’d be interested in showing their artwork in my studio window for a few weeks at a time so people walking by could view it at a distance, in the open air. Everyone I approached seemed to really like the idea. I honestly didn’t have any thoughts about growing East Window into a formal exhibit space. It just felt good to make the window available to artists to show their work at a time when less opportunities were available to do so.

Awareness of this window spread quickly, and by 2021, we found ourselves partnering with other art organizations and educational institutions to expand our curatorial possibilities. In addition to showing local and regional artists, we began to show works by internationally renowned artists. We even had outdoor film screenings in the spring and summer months. 

In November 2022, we moved into our current space at 4550 Broadway in the North Boulder Arts District. We are utilizing every square foot of our 820 square feet. This includes our main indoor gallery, an outdoor patio exhibit space, a reading room, and, of course, our exhibit window—it took us a while, but we found a space with an actual east-facing window! 

What type of art/artists can guests to EW expect to encounter?

In 2023, we hosted over 30 exhibitions, installations, film screenings, readings, workshops, and artist talks, bringing together so many amazing people around relevant and often difficult collective issues as well as personal themes.

The artists showing at East Window have all, in one way or another, been marginalized within the art world as well as at large socially.

East Window is an accessible space, inside and out.

You’ve done a lot in the past two years as an arts organization. Who have you enjoyed working within the past two years in the arts community? 

Truthfully, it’s been a pleasure to work with each institution, organization, and individual whose paths have crossed with East Window from its inception. I’ve learned such a great deal from every collaboration and partnership.

How do you curate experiences at East Window? As in, what is your process?

We try to level the playing field in terms of exhibiting established artists side by side with emerging artists and even folks who don’t identify as artists.

We also periodically invite folks to enter our calls for work. These calls are open to everyone and culminate into group exhibits in our main gallery or inclusion into our newly implemented East Window Journal of Written and Visual Arts.

We also offer opportunities to our interns to curate readings, screenings or other events at the gallery.

Additionally, as people continue to learn about us, we’ve been receiving and considering curatorial proposals and exhibition requests from around the region and beyond.

Why are you passionate about East Window?

To a large extent, what happens at East Window has been motivated by my having children. I want my kids and other young people to see that we all have agency to shape the culture around us, to bring together the creative communities that we need in order to incite and sustain personal as well as social change.

The overarching response to the work that East Window is doing has been favorable; for that, I’m very grateful. But we’re constantly looking for ways to transform audience appreciation into concrete community involvement, encouraging our audience to reach a level of deep resolve and engagement with the narratives that artists presenting at the gallery are trying to advance.

What is a primary challenge that EW faces as a not-for-profit arts organization?

There are many ongoing challenges East Window faces as a non-commercial art gallery and cultural hub. One of which is to make every effort to implement a plan where every artist who exhibits, performs and curates at East Window receives some sort of honorarium for all of their hard work. I’ve made this effort a priority. This means in order for East Window to offer paid gigs to artists with any consistency, we are continuously in the process of fundraising and grant writing for the gallery.

How can the community support public programming in the arts at East Window?

An important way to support East Window is to become a member or make a tax-deductible donation. I know this can be off-putting to many folks who might not have the means to support us in that way. Nonetheless, contributions of any amount are vital to the sustainability of East Window’s efforts. 

Other great ways to engage with East Window are to show up in person for our events and opening receptions; let East Window and the artists showing there know what you’re thinking — let us know who you’d like to see exhibit or perform at the gallery; and of course, spread the word and tell your friends all about us!

The next major installation that is coming to East Window is YOUR REFUSAL TO SEE: A Native Guide Project by Anna Tsouhlarakis, an Indigenous Greek artist who works in sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her work has been part of national and international exhibitions at venues such as the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Portrait Gallery. Inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man,” this exhibit deals with the artist’s venture of becoming a resident of Colorado. 

The opening reception for the Tsouhlarakis exhibit is Friday, November 1, 2024, from 7 to 9 p.m. at East Window, 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2 in Boulder. 

You can get started on the East Window website to find out how you can become a member or a sponsor and support public programming in the arts.