GALION — Meg Frazier firmly believes that arts and culture need to play more of a role in small midwestern towns, and she is hard at work making her feelings a reality for her hometown of Galion.

Contemporary Artspace opened eight months ago in uptown Galion, but it was a dream of Frazier’s for many years before that.

Frazier graduated from Galion High School in 2000, and started at Defiance College in the fall of that year. She graduated from Defiance in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree and the economic downturn in Ohio at that time led her to Chicago, where she spent approximately eight years immersed in teaching art to inner city youth in various locations.

In 2012, she started her first gallery and has since opened others in the Chicago area. Thankfully, her roots in Chicago never got so deep as to make her forget where she came from, or lose sight of what she was able to offer Galion on a much smaller scale.

In the fall of 2016, Meg moved back to Galion. She began a three-month process of personally relocating her life, as well as setting up a business and studio without knowing what type of response she would receive.

Frazier found a studio right off the square uptown that is perfect for her needs as an artist and teacher. She also hired Jessica Bruner-Flick to manage the studio and take care of things in her absence.

Jessica is a local 2000 graduate of Colonel Crawford High School with a Bachelor of Fine arts degree from Akron University. Along with custom graphic design, Bruner-Flick also teaches classes and workshops in the Artspace.

“It was important to me to hire someone to run our space with deep family roots in our community in order for me to feel comfortable knowing we could withstand the ups and downs of opening a small business and succeed in the long run,” Frazier said. “I got even more lucky that in Jessica I found a thirst for continued education and the desire to embrace the vision of what our space is trying to relay to community members.”

Frazier still travels to Chicago frequently to manage her gallery there, but spends 80 percent of her time in Galion where she is enjoying her return to small town life.

Contemporary Artspace in Galion has something for all ages.

Since opening its doors, Frazier has hosted a field trip for a group of Crestline first graders as well as a Kids Camp for ages K-6 with approximately 100 kids total in attendance. During the week-long Kids Camp, kids worked in stations, learned to collaborate, were taught basic elements of art, and got to do “show and tell” on stage to talk about the work they did during camp.

“We have kids of all ages coming in excited and engaged in our space.” Frazier said.

For adults, Frazier has offered “Sip and Paint” events at local businesses, and will also be hosting a Galion alumni event in September.

“Contemporary Artspace is the place I would have loved to have as a kid,” she said. “We want to make art a ‘sport’ for Galion. Parents have to be willing to allow or want their kids to experience something that is outside of the norm that engages kids differently than sports, television, and academics. The arts add to everything!”

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