We go back with a new report in another cultural building on Valmiera!
This time is the turn of "Leduspagrab", which unbeknown for me, it´s Gymnasium´s art gallery.
Heading to the coordinates I received to locate the place I found the first and only sign that indicates where the gallery is. It´s not a very precisse road sign, actually; because, I don´t know it was because it was snowing and you couldn´t see the road or that I´m not very clever but I wasn´t able to find the building thanks to that road sign...and the surprise it was that the gallery was just at the other sidewalk.
The only place where you will see "Leduspagrabs" aside in the gallery itself....
...and the thing is that it´s the building at the other side of the street.
Supposedly the gallery was open from 9:00 to 14:00 but I got another suprise (or maybe I got wrong information): it was closed. No, I wasn´t late, it was 12:00.
What was this? I was looking for the place, after walking and finding out in every building following the arrow that road sign pointed but nothing. Then, I finally realised that that yellow building which looks like a modern-day-civilian-adapted bunker was actually the gallery I was looking for. How I was able to find it out? getting close, veeery close:
And I say "veeery close" because its main sign plate (this you see in the photo) was small, hided due the protection ceiling in the entrance and, worst of all, it was a bit gaunt (or probably it was frozen and the scratchs were actually traces of ice).
But then, as I said, it was closed:
The door is closed. And reinforced with chairs on the other side.
But, luckily, I found another door, which actually was the main door, not the previous one. The thing I want to point here is that the "other" door (the first one I tried and you can see in the photo) was the closest to street and the easiest to access while the other one was the closest to access if you come from the gymnasium. Anyway, it wasn´t anything aesthetic as both doors were equal in size and style. But I think the first door would be better to be open as people who comes from street realise easily that the gallery is open.
But doors are not important when you find the next surprise which is that actually the gallery HAS NOT opening hours. Probably it had in the past and that was why I had wrong information. I entered then in the gymnasium as probably I would find out the answer of all this, then I went to the gymnasium´s janitor asking about the gallery and he, kindly and in good english, told me that they don´t leave open the gallery and I´ve got to ask them if I want to visit it.
The reason why the gallery was closed is that not many people come to visit the gallery so they keep it locked.
This was curious, indeed, I thought that probably was also to prevent vandalism as well (the gallery is part of a high school after all) aside of the low public receiving. Anyway, it´s actually fuzzy as if you want to visit the gallery without knowing very clearly how to access you will probably give-up and leave it for another time.
However, I thought that probably on opening exhibitions the gallery reamins open for some event like that. But as I entered in the gallery thanks to a teacher who didn´t speak english I found myself with works which were even 5 years old:
This age of works could mean that they don´t put too often art works. Anyway, this gallery made the purpose to show the art works of some of the gymnasium´s students. The infrastructure and the interior of the building was gorgeous, I liked the stone wall and the circular passage where the works were. This was the best part of the gallery, I could say: the installation was good and enough attractive.
But sadly, to enter there you first find this part of the building:
The lobby room (the first place you find when you enter in a building) was split in two rooms which probably were used for activities too, who knows, but it differed from the rock wall part of the building; this one was more simple.
But the interior of the building wasn´t bad at all actually!...well, except for...
...the book visits (book in the right part of the photo)! No, not that but actually if you check this photo carefully you will see that the gas and water installations are completely at sight of anyone in the middle of the corridor part of the gallery. Not a very good thing for having guests around and gives the impression of a storage rather than a gallery. It would be better to have these installations in that other corner empty room I saw or, better, keep them hided thanks to some kind of stairs wall. This was the improvable part of the inner side of the building...oh! and that someone forgot to close the tap!
And this was "Leduspagrabs". The inside was good, small and simple but good if we consider that it´s a gallery from a gymnasium...with its own building!
But the problem was to find out the place in all the gymnasium´s structure and, in general, reach the gallery. I could say that a good solution would be to put the entrance title name bigger or clearer, or put another sign like the road sing one in the entry or stick to the building which says "Leduspagrabs galerija". The worst part however was entering there without being part of the gymnasium stuff, how you could enter there seeing that everything is closed and there´s no indications about what to do nor timetable avaliable? I think that the solution (a very simple one) would be sticking some simple papers in the entrance glass´ with the description, like "on the other door" (with a right narrow, this would go for the door I found locked and with chairs in the other side) and in the main entrance with another simple paper with would say something like "to enter ask the gymnasium´s janitor or art teacher" and the timetable...and even some events calendar if they organize something. And then the access would be much easier I think. Because otherwise, a visitor will find him/herself with everything closed and thinking that he/she came in the wrong time, giving back to the building.
This would be the solution for everyone. Now for foreign would be just adding translated version of those writtings.
PS. Looks like the spanish culture it´s more in the mind of people that I expected. That´s very good for me.
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