Cooperative to Open Hutton Centre Gallery

The Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, an artists’ cooperative in Santa Ana’s Harbor Business Park, will open an auxiliary gallery in the lobby of Hutton Development Co. Inc. in Hutton Centre on June 1.

The cooperative will occupy the new satellite location, at 201 E. Sandpointe Ave. in Santa Ana, rent-free for a 6-month trial period while continuing its exhibition schedule.

Cooperative director Bardene Allen said that because the 2,000-square-foot lobby is a public thoroughfare, exhibitions at Hutton Centre will have to be “appropriate for an office setting,” with no nudes or political subject matter. All art that the cooperative proposes to exhibit must first be reviewed by Hutton Management Services director Alison McGuire.

“That’s the trade-off for having a nice place to show,” Allen said. “It’s not like our other space where we feel free to do anything.” She added that “90% of the art” the cooperative exhibits at the Harbor Business Park location doesn’t deal with sexual or political themes anyway.

The cooperative is still looking for a permanent new location for its gallery, office and store.

A reception at the Hutton Centre location on June 1 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. will mark the opening of an exhibit of paintings by Jean Towgood. Future programming for the lobby gallery has not yet been set, but the cooperative plans to rotate exhibits every 6 to 8 weeks. Lobby hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to noon Saturday.