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oLo Gallery Opens
by Meg Churchman

Yet another community-minded organization, Creative Kids, founded by Stephen Ingle and Andrea Gates-Ingle, has created something that no other group has. Creative Kids strives to open doors to the El Paso youth that otherwise might not exist. They wish to spread the depth and power of “the arts, creativity and culture,” as well as the teaching element they provide. They focus especially on disabled and disadvantaged youth but are open to all kids. Not only a place to go and create, Creative Kids also travels to schools and other agencies that need its help. Children get to create and meet various artists, and, even better, their work is actually displayed. Those of you who are artists and photographers know how hard it is to get your material on a wall for show. For these children, it’s no problem. Not only is their work shown at Casa Jurado and at Providence Hospital, but now Creative Kids is the proud owner of the oLo Gallery, which opened Oct. 19. The gallery is Downtown at 504 San Francisco in Union Plaza and is much larger than their previous location on Montana. It has taken three years to obtain and renovate the new space, but those who have visited it would say it was worth the work. The gallery has more than 16, 000 square feet of space dedicated to the artwork of these children. While one floor is exclusively for shows, the other floor has a photo lab, a digital media lab, a darkroom, a kitchen and various other spaces for the creation of artwork or for rent by other non-profit organizations. Overall, the fabulous gallery cost over $1 million and was covered completely by grants and donations.
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