Changing spaces: Cat Ranch Art Guild to exhibit with Cadmium River Group

Those who frequent the First Friday art openings in Cape Girardeau will notice one less stop on the trip around town Feb. 5. The Cat Ranch Art Guild, based in Marble Hill, Mo., has decided to leave Westray Studio to combine efforts and art shows with the Cadmium River Group at Global Cafe.

Randy Hays, who runs the Cadmium group, is also a member of Cat Ranch. The two groups haven't worked out logistics of future shows but said they hope to soon. Westray Studio, owned by photographer and neurosurgeon Dr. Joel Ray, will eventually reopen in a new studio as well.

The move is probably a good one from a sheer spectator point of view. Westray Studio wasn't a studio space so much as a small, overcrowded walk-through shop where instead of enjoying the art provided by Ray and the Marble Hill group, patrons bumped into it or couldn't see it behind another piece.

The rural art guild produces and exhibits between 10 and 20 pieces a month, too many to try to have a legitimate, enjoyable show in such a small space with other tenants.

Combining with the Cadmium River Group will at least give the guild a larger space with more of the typical gallery feel.

On the other hand, the Cadmium group has elegantly and sufficiently filled the space in the rooms adjacent to Global Cafe, which makes me wonder what having two art groups display there will do to future exhibits.

I'm thinking that combining the groups into one space will enhance the Cadmium's street presence and finally provide the Cat Ranch some room to stretch.