Art Farm Red Barn Gallery

A transformation of barn and gallery – a subversion of expectations – produces novel circumstances for experiencing art. The Red Barn Gallery is the public entry point for Art Farm, a non-profit artist-in-residence program situated on a forty-acre working farm in Marquette, Nebraska. The building juxtaposes vernacular, place-bound physicality with the “white cube” gallery typology. Transformations of both barn and gallery types subvert expectations and produce novel circumstances for experiencing art. The Red Barn Gallery resists but doesn’t eliminate neutrality of the white cube. The flat white walls give way to inflected surfaces that bend to accommodate, structure and deflect light. Filtered light enters from the polycarbonate-over-spaced-board roof and is further diffused with a horizontal, retractable solar shade scrim. The east wall of the central gallery is eliminated in favor of an aluminum and glass garage door that opens to the native grasses of the restored Art Prairie.