Maya Allison after 5 Traverse

In the wake of the sad closing of 5 Traverse gallery in Providence last month, 5T co-director Maya Allison has launched her own venture, Maya Allison Projects. And her first project is "Art for Chile: A Silent Auction to Benefit the Quake & Tsunami Victims" from March 18 to 21 at 232 Westminster St., Providence.

The auction is organized by Allison, Chilean artist Magaly Ponce and photographer Frank Mullen. It features work donated by artists Umberto Crenca, Ellen Driscoll, Megan and Murray McMillan, Allison Paschke, Magaly Ponce, Lisa Perez, Jessica Deane Rosner, Andrew Sloan, Neal T. Walsh and numerous others.

Allison's site reports that she is also organizing a Lisa Perez exhibit in Miami in April, an Allison Owen show for this spring, a group show on the theme of games for this year, a Jamey Morrill exhibit this fall, and the Providence new media festival Pixilerations [v.7] this fall.

As we wrote previously in the Providence Phoenix, the closing of 5 Traverse...

coming right on the heels of the closing of Stairwell Gallery on Broadway, leaves Providence, home of one of the top art schools in the country, without any commercial galleries consistently and seriously engaged with the boundary-pushing art of today — the art addressing where art is now and where art is going.

With the memory of the closing of Gallery Agniel in late 2006 still fresh, it again raises the question of whether Providence is capable of supporting commercial venues for this sort of art. "There isn't a sense of the value of these galleries to the city's identity as a creative capital," 5 Traverse co-director Maya Allison says.

Jesse Smith, who opened 5 Traverse in a building he owns at 5 Traverse Street in April 2007, said he is closing the gallery because of "just random transitions that are in my life and Maya's life." He declined to be specific, but he said, "The gallery is financially strong. It covers a salary and overhead . . . That's not why we're closing . . . If we have anything to offer the community, it's a model that works."

Read the rest here.

Previously:
Feb. 2, 2010: 5 Traverse is closing.
Jan. 21, 2010: Farewell to Stairwell and Yes.
Jan. 11, 2007: Goodbye, Gallery Agniel/Martina & Co.