A place for artists: No experience required
Photos by Becky Stinehour
Housed in a white clapboard building attached to the historical 1874 Church that faces Wall Street, Bell Fine Arts, 306 E. Fifth St. in Belton, is a gathering spot for artists with skills ranging from beginning to expert and who work with a variety mediums and styles.
Artists with a range of experience fill a room, working on their latest projects. The mediums are as varied as the individuals. Some are creating wildlife images in pencil while others work in watercolor, oils, acrylics or pen and ink.
It is a place where local artists go for fun, fellowship and inspiration.
“The first 30 minutes people walk around to see what everyone is doing,” said Jeanne Logsden, Ways and Means board chair.
Completed projects that should be seen by an admiring public hang on the walls. Some are for sale, others are not. All are expressions of artists past and present.
Bell Fine Arts, which was founded in 1963, may be Belton’s best kept secret for quality art created by passionate local artists.
“People come here to do their own stuff, do their own thing,” said Andy Phair, board member. “We encourage originality. People feel good about what they do and want to do better.”
It’s open every day. Membership is required. The annual dues are $40. Classes are offered by experts in their medium and fees vary.
“We teach a lot and mentor each other,” Phair said. “Artists are wonderful and will take the time to help you.”
Phair, who has been teaching and producing art her whole life, was instrumental in starting the Salado Village Artists in 1970. When she and her late husband moved to Belton in the 2000s she joined Bell Fine Arts.
“I am an artist and spent my life teaching and learning art,” Phair said. “Everybody has an artist in their soul. People come and say ‘I can’t draw a straight line.’ I tell them that’s OK because the crooked ones are more interesting.”
Phair used to work in oils but now prefers acrylics. “It’s easier with acrylics. You can paint over them.”
The association has 60 members, but it would like to attract more, especially younger artists, to keep the organization going. “We have wonderful members. We need to be able to see their work,” Phair said. “I couldn’t begin to list the different artistic talents of our members because I haven’t seen them all yet.”
Bell Fine Arts has a full library of instructional and informational books for use along with a lending library of books for pleasure reading.
Like any nonprofit group Phair said Bell Fine Arts has fundraisers — such as the Mahjong tournament it held last year — to help supplement the membership fees.
For now, showing their work has become a challenge with the small space that once served as the church’s Sunday school, and lack of street parking.
The iconic stone building was a church from 1874 through the early 1960s when a new church was built to accommodate the congregation. In 1964, the church was deconsecrated and the buildings were sold to Bell Fine Arts.
The group held art shows inside the former church until the structure deteriorated and was deemed unfit for use. The city condemned the church but the adjacent school building was still usable; Bell Fine Arts has remained in that space.
Wishing they could save the church, but not having the funds, Phair said the board deeded 50 percent ownership of the church to the historical society. Improvements were made to the church through the 1874 Church Restoration Committee and the Better Belton Foundation to reinforce its walls, put in a new floor and install a new roof.
While having a location for exhibits and more room to create would be nice, Bell Fine Arts is more about the experience than the place. “We share so much: enrichment, youth and experience,” said Board President Kimberli Gray.
