Dover Art League

We visited the art league on First Friday for the opening reception of a joint show by two Mispillion Art League members. We got there basically at 5pm on the dot, and there was a slightly disorganized milling-​around feeling to the downstairs gallery when we first got there — they had quite a bit going on (live jewelry models, live music, a jewelry selling booth out front, refreshments inside, etc… so I think it was just that people hadn’t quite settled in to their assigned duties for the night yet.
We spent most of our time in the upstairs gallery at the reception, which was wonderful. I’d only visited the building once before, but we found out later that the art league wasn’t officially open then, it had been rented out for an event. It’s a lot more impressive when it’s open! I went back downstairs several times, both to look around and to get from one end of the upstairs gallery to the other, since there’s a staircase at each end and the upstairs gallery was quite crowded at times.
I have to say, the «SALE» art right inside the front door didn’t give me a very favorable first impression. If I was there to look for «SALE» art, there’s a TJ Maxx across town. I would have liked to have been greeted by some of their best work, not the clearance rack, as I came in off the street. Once I got past that, though, they really do have some fantastic pieces on display (and for sale), and I liked that there was a good variety of styles and media — everything from glassblowing to paintings to little handmade stuffed critters with embellishments (I’m not sure what to call them, not dolls, not stuffed animals, but something like that).
The show upstairs, and the reception itself, were pretty awesome. I’d say I’d be keeping an eye out for the next one, but the Dover Art League’s website doesn’t appear to have been updated since last summer, and their Facebook page hasn’t had an update since early September. It’s definitely worth checking out again if I do hear about another show opening, though. And I signed in and left my email address for that purpose, but I did that last time, too, and never had any contact.
tl;dr — great potential, not living up to it