Still hope for exhibiting art calling it quits on May 31

Still hope for exhibiting art calling it quits on May 31. Gallery goes, but owners of a sister business step up to insure that its walls will remain adorned. -- By Tracey Laity MONTROSE — Whites Gallery may be closing but all is not lost for artists and art buyers in the community. Linda Strack, owner of Whites Gallery for the past 12 years, shocked the community when she announced Monday that after a long and personal struggle to keep the gallery afloat, she was calling it quits on May 31. But Miguel Perez, who has run Whites Art, Framing and Restoration since he bought this sister business from Strack in July, and Tracy Holmes, an artist based in La Canada Flintridge, want the community to know that artists will still be able to exhibit their work at the gallery's vacant premises. "After the news came out, we've had a lot of customers come in to speak to us," said Perez, who has been the face of the gallery business for 12 years. "The gallery may be closing but we are not, and artists now can exhibit with us. "We are starting anew, starting afresh," said Perez, who said he is confident local artwork will continue to sell as long as it is displayed properly. "We will continue to offer this service and we hope we will get better and better each year." Holmes said she was saddened by Strack's decision to close the gallery, a well-known and loved fixture of the community, but was anxious to reassure residents that the same exhibition space will still be available to artists under Whites Art, Framing and Restoration, starting June 1. Artists will be able to display their work at the premises because Strack's former landlord was a supporter of the arts and had agreed to honor the remainder of artists' contracts until the end of 2006, Holmes said. After that, new and existing artists will be offered yearly contracts for 2007, she said. Holmes, who said she would be interested in purchasing the property and running it as an art venue if the landlord ever considered selling it, believes that there is enough demand in the community to sustain a viable art venue. "I will stand behind the landlord and Miguel and assist them in whatever way I can," said Holmes, an art docent at Palm Crest Elementary School who has also had experience running her own small business, Holmes Gallery, since 1995. Strack, who had hoped someone from the community would pick up where her legacy in the arts community had left off, fully supports the efforts of Perez and Holmes. "I couldn't hope to hear better news," she said. "Miguel is very knowledgeable and has plenty of gallery experience. If the landlord is prepared to rent tlie wall space and make it available for artists, then I think Miguel would be brilliant at handling the arts sales aspect of the business." The first exhibition to be held at Whites Art, Framing and Restoration will be Holmes,' entitled Tour de France. The reception will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on June 3.