Art Gallery Coordinator Rich Bergeman Lands Art Residency

Contributed story
Edited by Lori Fluge-Brunker

Sink Site by Rich Bergeman.

LBCC Art Gallery coordinator Rich Bergeman was chosen to participate in a four-week art residency at Playa in Eastern Oregon, a nonprofit organization supporting creative work in the arts, literature, natural sciences and other fields.

Stratton Root Cellar by Rich Bergeman.

Rich has spent the past several weeks working on a photo project in nearby Fort Rock Valley, where he is looking for homestead sites and early towns that sprang up in the early 1900s, only to disappear within 10-15 years when the realities of farming in the desert finally sank in for those early settlers.

"An area that now looks like a sparsely populated sage-brush covered desert for a brief time sported a dozen small towns and a couple thousand homesteaders," wrote Rich in a recent email. "Today it's hard to find a trace of any of that, so my project is to find what traces there are and make some pictures."

Rich actually began work at the college in 1976 as a media writer (writing press releases for the college) in what is now College Advancement, then moving to the position of public information coordinator in 1979.  He quit to, as he puts it, "regain my sanity" and get a master's degree at OSU, after which he promptly returned in 1981 to teach journalism -a job he held until his retirement in 2007.

"I was lured back to run the galleries part-time in 2009 with a package of incentives that included my own office (aka storage closet) and wastebasket," wrote Rich. "Overall, I guess that's something like 33 years. It's kind of depressing when you add it all up - I need to get a life!"

Located in Summer Lake in Lake County, Playa manages a two residency programs, and supports those who are committed and passionate about their work and who will benefit from time spent in Playa’s remote location. Fellowship Residencies are Playa’s primary program, which span two multi-month sessions each year.

For more information on Playa, visit: http://www.playasummerlake.org/

(Lori Fluge-Brunker is a communications specialist in the College Advancement Marketing office.)