The First Amendment Gallery at the Manitou Art Center is the only non-juried art show in the Pikes Peak Region. The January First Friday Art Walk will feature an ongoing show in the First Amendment, as well as new shows in the Hagnauer and Slam galleries.
The First Amendment Gallery at the Manitou Art Center (MAC) is the “people’s gallery,” an opportunity for any artist no matter skill level or medium to submit up to two art pieces to be on display in the town that coined the phrase, “Keep Manitou Weird.”
“As demand for our other galleries increased, we realized that we needed opportunities for artists who immediately wanted to participate in the Art Center, so we created [the First Amendment Gallery] that has a low bar for accessibility, that most folks can participate in – provided it’s safe to hang,” said Natalie Johnson, the Executive Director of the Manitou Art Center.
According to Johnson, the gallery garnered its name after the First Amendment of our country’s Bill of Rights amid the 2016 election – a move by the MAC intended to give artists permission to be more political in the work they submitted.
“For the past say, eight years, it’s been the First Amendment Gallery. And that was when President [Donald] Trump first came to office. We were looking for artists to maybe become potentially more political with their work, and to encourage that, and then also to really express through the title that anything is welcome,” Johnson said.
She continued saying that although most artists who have featured their work in the gallery have not really changed the message of their art since the name was changed, she feels it promotes comfortability and gives permission to work in a more political space if desired.
“I would say that most people have not changed how they express themselves. I do think that there are folks who feel comfortable showing with us because of the name, but then I do think that it allows for that opportunity,” Johnson said, “It also encourages even our long-time artists who are experimenting with new mediums and some things like that that they have a chance to show and then get feedback.”
Approximately 65 artists are featured in the current show. One works under the pseudonym Chezmerelda Thunderdome; she is a local artist who has worked in the unique medium of stuffed animals for about a decade.
Thunderdome told the Bulletin that although she’s identified as an artist for most of her life, she became inspired to work with plushies during a routine trip to her family’s dumpster.
“When I was young my folks and had me take out the trash to our community dumpster. I saw a huge bag full of pristine stuffed animals. Seeing those friends in the trash, I just thought of them all going to the landfill, and it made me sad,” Thunderdome said. “In high school, I learned how to sew and made plushies for my friends out of upcycled materials: socks and weird fabric scraps. Then I realized I could make more advanced creatures, and I started going to local thrift stores and just frankensteining them together.”
And Thunderdome’s term of “Frankensteining,” is accurate. The result of her craft is a series of whimsical creatures built of her thrift store plushie finds, and her imagination.
For the current First Amendment Gallery show, Thunderdome said one of the pieces she’s submitted has gone down a slightly different avenue than her usual whimsical creatures. She’s created a mask crafted entirely out of stuffed animals.
The added twist? A ponytail hanging off the back was created with her hair collected during her last haircut.
“One of the things I like is to elevate whenever I can, when something strikes me if I have a new idea, I always try and go for it. This show I have a mask made out of stuffed animals and something weird I did this time is I added my own hair from a haircut – there’s a whole ponytail coming out of the mask that’s my own hair,” Thunderdome said.
Working in a medium that might as well be deemed self-created by Thunderdome, she said she’s endlessly grateful for the MAC community that has always welcomed her with “open arms.”
“It was life-changing for me, and I know that’s a big statement. I had been looking around and no one was more enthusiastic to help me show than the MAC. A few of my friends that make different styles of art, too – I got them into the community,” Thunderdome said. “[The MAC has] always treated me so well and accepted me with open arms. It kind of started a ripple effect of knowing it’s an accepting space and sharing that with others … I always try and show something.”
Anyone who wishes to submit artwork for the February/March show in the First Amendment Gallery can access the submission form on the Manitou Art Center website. Below are the intake dates when artwork can be dropped off at the MAC to be put on display.
2025 Intake Dates:
Feb. 1 and 4
March 29 and April 1
May 31 and June 3
July 26 and 29
Sept. 27 and 30
Nov. 29 and Dec. 2
