Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.

BATTLE CREEK, MI — Linda Tafolla is a permanent one-woman show at one of Battle Creek’s longest-running art galleries. The oldest gallery, The Art Center of Battle Creek, celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. 
 
On October 18 Tafolla will open an exhibit featuring the work of about 28 artists who have displayed their pieces over the past 25 years at the Commerce Pointe Art Gallery under her watchful eye. The exhibit is called "25 Year Anniversary Art Exhibit...A Retrospective."
 
As the self-described curator of the space, she will be doing the majority of the heavy lifting to prepare for the show — hanging the artwork on walls throughout Commerce Pointe; creating and attaching information about each of the pieces; and attending to the smallest details such as making sure glass coverings are clean.
 
“I’m doing it all myself,” says Tafolla, who has been the sole curator and caretaker of the gallery space since it launched in 1999 following an inquiry about renting the building.
 
Jane ParikhFramed work from some of the 28 artists who will be part of the exhibit, are carefully placed against the walls of the Commerce Point Gallery by Linda Tafolla, Curator of the space.Renovations to the building due to new ownership had not yet been completed when she contacted the new owner to talk with him about using the walls in the public spaces to exhibit art. He agreed. And it eventually led to the addition of a gallery,
 
The desire to exhibit art was motivated by an impending job loss. She had just learned that she had been downsized from her position with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as a Communications Liaison Expert In Residence Program. As part of a plan to re-invent herself, she looked up the building owner’s phone number and the two eventually met.
 
“I told him that I would like to put art in the building and have the tenants pay to have the art in the public spaces that make up the gallery and in their offices. He said he couldn’t change their current lease amounts but he could offer me this 'little office that nobody wants because it’s so small.'"

He also told her, "'If you find and keep art in the building, you can keep the office without paying rent on it.'”
 
To support herself while doing this unpaid job, she produced videos for companies in Galesburg and Kalamazoo; held various positions with the Art Center of Battle Creek; and was in sales for WOTV Channel 41 before it relocated to Grand Rapids from Battle Creek.
 
Her last paid job was with Siena Heights where she worked for 14 years as Assistant Director of its branch at Kellogg Community College. She retired from there in 2019.
 
Throughout her years of employment, she maintained her commitment to bringing the work of artists throughout Michigan to Battle Creek, occasionally focusing on those representing ethnic communities.
 
A statement that features prominently in each of her exhibits says: “There are so many misconceptions about people of various cultures. Misconceptions that lead to fear in the eyes of many. The first way people learn the most from a people, a culture, is through its art and music. That’s what I want to do through this gallery…Help people  understand the beauty of others.”
 
During Black History Month, she always has an exhibit featuring the work of African American artists, two of whom will have pieces in the 25-year retrospective. Art aficionados in Kalamazoo will likely recognize their names — Al Harris Jr. and James Palmore, who also has a show opening at Kalamazoo's Black Arts & Cultural Center on Oct. 4.
 
Their work will share space with other artists including photographers Jack Heisenberg and Southwest Michigan Second Wave's own Fran Dwight, and painter Nora Chapa Mendoza, a Detroit-based artist who is the recipient of the 2024 Kresge Eminent Artist award.
 
To ensure that all artists she has worked with are included, Tafolla will bring in pieces from her own collection done by past Commerce Pointe exhibitors who have passed away or no longer have the bandwidth to participate actively.Jane ParikhLinda Tafolla goes through a 3-inch ring binder that holds newspaper clippings and photographs of promotional materials for each exhibit over the past 25 years.
 
An appreciation, not a vocation
 
Tafolla’s own brushes with art include an art history course she took sometime in the early 2000s at Western Michigan University and more recently her “Rock Dancers,’ rock collages that she began creating during COVID as a way to get through the pandemic.
 
Jane ParikhLinda Tafolla carefully holds the "Rock Dancers" (rock collages) that began making during COVID-19 as a way to get through the Pandemic.Were it not for a lack of money, she says she would have continued studying art history. She walks beaches in Michigan, often with artist friends throughout the seasons, to collect rocks for her pieces.
 
Her real art education began as a young girl growing up in San Antonio. Her parents made sure she and her sister had a broad background in all the things they were supposed to have by exposing them to classical music, arts, and the theatre.
 
“They would often send me to Mexico City to visit relatives,” she says. “My uncle was a policeman there but his side job was as a travel guide. He used to give tours to movie stars like Ann Sheridan and Tyrone Powers. He would include me in every tour he was giving so I’d get to go to museums and other attractions. Between my family wanting to entertain me and my uncle having to entertain others, I was exposed to art centers, museums, and the beautiful spots of Mexico.”
 
Tafolla took a photography class during her time at Kellogg Community College and received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on Communications from WMU. She earned a Master’s degree from Siena Heights University in Organizational Leadership after leaving WKKF.
 
Jane ParikhArtist Paloma Rosales, who lives in Lansing, used Linda Tafolla's face in a painting depicting a female soldier who fought during the 1910 Mexican Revolution. Another painting shows two of the Soldaderas (female soldiers).Photography is something she continues to do. Prior to her work with WKKF, she worked in communications for the United Methodist Church and did videos and photography, including a project in Guatemala that found her peering into a volcano to snap some photographs.
 
“I admire people who can paint and draw. I’m challenged by drawing stick figures,” Tafolla says. “I enjoyed doing stuff in the darkroom, but I also like finding pictures. It can be something as simple as a bicycle wheel and looking at it as a piece of work because the spokes are so intricate. If you look closer at something, there’s a pattern there that photographs can draw out.”
 
Much like she does with those photographs, she is drawing people out and giving them opportunities to see things from different angles and perspectives, while giving the artists a place to be.
 
Linda Tafolla, Curator of the Commerce Pointe Gallery, explains the art of arranging artwork in the 25-Year Retrospective exhibit.“I’m not giving them a voice. I’m giving them a space.”
 
Not one of the artists she contacted, some who she had not been in touch with for 10 or more years, declined to be a part of the 25-year retrospective.
 
“They all remembered me,” she says.
 
A three-inch ring binder contains newspaper clippings going back to the very first exhibit. It is a bible of sorts for Tafolla and holds a place of honor in her tiny office alongside the tools of her trade, all of which she purchases with her own money.
 
“I happened to be looking through this binder and I saw the date, May 26, 1999, and my sister was with me at my house and she said you’ve got to downsize. Let’s start getting rid of stuff. Then she says, ’25 years, you ought to have a party.’ I don’t need much of an excuse to have a party.”