I always check out signs, plaques and markers when I travel and often take photos of them as a means of taking notes, labeling my photos or to remind me to check something out at a later date.
So, it's not a surprise to find a photo in my files of this plaque I spotted on the side of a little building during our recent visit to the Arts and Design District in Carmel, Indiana.
The one-room gallery opened in 1998 and earned certification as the World's Smallest Children's Art Gallery in the World in 1999.
This vest-pocket building measures 15 feet 4 inches long and 9 feet 5 inches wide and is home to the first gallery to open in Carmel's now-thriving gallery district.
The gallery wasn't open when we visited, but I still wondered about the story behind it as I peeked in the windows and took a couple of photos of the still- cheerful little garden (this was November!) and sculpture of a cute little gardener tending the plants in front of the building.
The gallery exhibits the artwork of kindergarten through sixth-grade students from local schools, staging a new show and opening reception for the young artists every month from September through May.
The most recent exhibit in January 2013, which featured 160 pieces of artwork of second- to fifth graders from Carmel's Towne Meadow Elementary School, drew 341 visitors to its opening reception-a new attendance record for a single day at the gallery. The show also featured four mosaics created by all of the school's K-5 students.
The gallery draws as many as 3,000 visitors each year.
The gallery also hosts international cultural exchange shows that feature the artwork of children from Carmel's sister city of Kawachinagano, Japan, and Changha, Hunan Province, China.
And their place in the Guinness World Records list?
When museum officials began researching the idea in the late 1990s, there were only two children's art galleries in existence. In fact, when the other children's art gallery closed, the Carmel children's gallery became smallest and the biggest children's art Gallery in the world.
I'm not sure how many stand-alone, bricks-and-mortar children's art galleries exist these days, but a Google search reveals many places listed as children's art galleries are not open, part of a larger institution or a Web-only display.
The story behind this building also reveals an interesting glimpse into Carmel's history.
I learned that the little building started life as part of a larger home owned by Zina Warren around 1875.
Zina Warren was the son of Daniel Warren, one of the area's early pioneers who helped found and plat the town of Carmel under the name of Bethlehem in 1837. The community was a typical farming town in the early years, officially incorporating and changing its name to Carmel in 1874.
Zina wrote about his life and times in what was then the semi-wilderness of Indiana in a book published around 1911. The book, Reminiscences of the long ago, details the important events, people, development and small-town life in Carmel during the late 1800s and early 1900s. You can read the entire book online here.
One hundred years after Zina moved into the house, at least this part of it belonged to Phil Hinshaw, a business person and long-time resident of Carmel. Hinshaw's father was the most recent occupant of the building at that time, and Hinshaw donated to Carmel for use as a Bicentennial House on the occasion of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.
The restored home moved from its original Main Street location to a spot further down the street and eventually found new life as the office of the Carmel-Clay Chamber of Commerce.
The building became the Carmel Arts Council House in 1993.
In 2005, the building moved to its third, and current, Main Street location.
The Children's Art Gallery is open throughout the school year on Friday and Saturday from 2 p.m. through 5 p.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. The gallery is also open by appointment or for special events and exhibits during the summer months.
Want to learn more about the gallery and the history of Carmel? Check out Indiana Curiosities: Quirky characters, roadside oddities & other offbeat stuff by Dick Wolfsie or Carmel: Images of America by Terri Horvath.
© Dominique King 2013 All rights reserved
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