For four years, Salem on the Edge has welcomed art connoisseurs to discuss, enjoy and purchase fine art from across the state. The downtown gallery’s spacious walls have hosted hundreds of abstract, landscape and other original pieces.
But, on the eve of its closure, owner Melanie Weston said the memories that stick out since opening in 2020 are those with newcomers.
“People who bring in their small children for the first time, I’m their first gallery that they’ve ever come into. I’m really touched with that. And I always tell them, ‘I’m so glad that I’m your child’s first gallery, because I think it’s important,” she said. “Art is important to all of our lives, art’s all around us, whether people realize it or not.”
Salem on the Edge will close on Sept. 28, before Weston moves away for an opportunity in Southern California. She said it felt like a good time to depart.
“The whole experience has been wonderful,” she said. “The gallery is my baby. I’ve lived this gallery for four years, it’s been my life,” she said.
Weston moved to Salem in 2007, when her late husband David George Andersen was hired as chief preparator at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. Weston, who holds a master’s degree in art, eventually was hired at the museum as the collections manager, cataloging the works coming in and helping to hang up shows.
While working, Weston said she toyed with the idea of selling furniture, products and art, and some discussions with friends to open a gallery hadn’t panned out.
When Covid hit in 2020, she was furloughed and saw reduced hours. That spurred her to start seriously considering opening a space downtown.
“No one was working, really, and I just got a wild hare and decided to do it, because why not? Salem was lacking. There was no fine art gallery in Salem,” she said. Weston defines a fine art gallery as one that only sells original artwork without other products alongside it.
There was one storefront available, a former clothing store at 156 Liberty St. N.E. She looked at the space in mid-May 2020. By June she’d rented it and in July she opened Salem on the Edge.
“It was really fast. So things were really fluid. I knew I had to open up the gallery right away, because I didn’t know if things were going to be shut down again,” she said.
When she opened, she had over a dozen original artists ready to show and sell their work in the gallery. In the early days she hung all their work together, before transitioning to having a featured artist and guest artist each month.
Weston wanted the space to be inviting to people who may not otherwise enter a fine art gallery. One of the first things she did was dedicate a wall for local graffiti artists to work on, a rotating showcase visible through the front window.
“It catches people’s eye, and it works,” she said. “That gets them in the door, and then I can chat with them, and we can have a conversation.”
She said opening during Covid allowed her to test out interests and move at a slower pace. During that time, a lot of the visitors were families and young people looking to get out of the house. She’d give the kids cardboard, crayons and paper to create their own masterpieces, which she hung in the bathroom.
“They were starved for conversation. And they would come in and really look at every piece. And I would have these deep conversations with these young people, and I was like, ‘God, I was never this smart, I never had conversations like this at your age,’” she said, and laughed.
Then, as the pandemic restrictions lifted, people started coming out more and more.
“Once things started ramping up, and the other businesses felt the same way, it was like it just shot out of a rocket,” she said.
Soon, she had over 20 artists with the gallery.
“It brings community together. If you don’t have the arts, you don’t have anything,” she said.
But, in recent months, things have begun to slow down. Weston typically enjoys seeing 150 visitors during Salem Art Walk, which brings live music and pop-up art shows downtown the first Friday of each month. Lately she’s been seeing about 100.
She said it feels like there’s less foot traffic downtown. When an opportunity came up in Southern California, which she declined to detail for privacy, she said it felt like a good time to leave.
“I wanted to go out on a high. Things are slowing down in Salem. Not as many people are coming downtown. I think everybody kind of knows about that because of the businesses that are closing, which is really unfortunate,” she said.
This summer, several businesses have left the heart of downtown, including The Freckled Bee, which is now in a studio nearby according to their Facebook page, and The TRUNK which announced a move to North Dakota.
Weston believes online shopping has contributed to the issue.
“Salem has such a great downtown. We have all these old buildings that are still here, and the people who really notice that are tourists that come in,” she said. “It’s unique.”
Weston said she’s loved getting to work alongside other downtown Salem businesses.
“They’re great people, and they’re all working their butts off,” she said. “And they do it because they love it. They do it because they have a passion for what they’re doing.”
Salem on the Edge’s last show opens up on Sept. 4, and will run until the gallery closes on Sept. 28.
Weston’s late husband will be the final featured artist. Andersen, who died in 2017, did work that explored themes of politics, religion, art history and wordplay. He was one of the first artists she showed at the gallery.
“I think it was really important that I should go out with his work,” she said.
Weston called her departure bittersweet. When she leaves, she hopes another gallery will come along to help fill the need in Salem.
Contact reporter Abbey McDonald: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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Abbey McDonald joined the Salem Reporter in 2022. She previously worked as the business reporter at The Astorian, where she covered labor issues, health care and social services. A University of Oregon grad, she has also reported for the Malheur Enterprise, The News-Review and Willamette Week.
