Near the end of a conversation with Charles Mayer, the longtime director of the Sandusky Cultural Center perks up.
We’ve mentioned to him that we’ve heard the phrase “hidden gem” used in reference to the professional art gallery located at Sandusky High School.
“That’s absolutely true!” Mayer says during a recent phone interview. “I get that comment every show that opens – that this is Sandusky’s best-kept secret!”
It shouldn’t be a secret.
Open, when a show is running, from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday, the Sandusky Cultural Center has existed since 1967.
According to a history that can be found on
an outdated website for the center, “it began with the vision and energy of Frank Smith, who saw the center’s creation ‘lead to a greater role for art in our community.’”
Mayer, a one-time Sandusky High student, wasn’t around for that first year, but returned to Sandusky from Cleveland – after graduating from Case Western Reserve University, which had a co-operative program that allowed him to take studio art classes at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and teaching in the area for a few years – to take an art-teaching job at the school in the late ’60s. Gifted with calligraphy, he began helping out by designing mailed announcements for shows.
At some point, he was officially part of the team, earning a whopping $15 per show, he says.
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James W. PeakeFrom "The Cleveland Artifact Machine IV" exhibit that was displayed at the gallery from October/November 2024, a vintage cigarette machine retooled by R!ch Cihlar to dispense cigarette package sized original works of art from 21 different artists.“Eventually, I became more involved with helping to set up an exhibit,” he says. “I was interested in museums and galleries and exhibiting things, and I think I kind of had a natural knack for it, and they appreciated it.”
According to the aforementioned online history, the earliest shows consisted of work by local school children and traveling exhibits loaned or rented for a nominal fee, as well, according to Mayer, of the work of a Sandusky doctor who enjoyed painting clowns.
Over the years, Mayer says, the gallery displayed shows such as one consisting of works by Norman Rockwell that belonged to a collection of the Sandusky-based American Crayon Company.
“Then the Smithsonian started sending out rental shows, and they got gradually very much beyond the budget of the Sandusky Cultural Center, so we started putting together shows of recognized regional artists,” says Mayer, who became director after the roughly three-decade tenure of Smith. “And sometimes they would have a theme, and as it evolved, the theme part became more and more dominant.”
That theme, he adds, could be as simple as “Trees” – “something to hold the show together as an experience rather than just a random collection of stuff hanging in there.”
As the years passed, the Sandusky Cultural Center added to the mix shows focused on work from other cultures, one notable exhibition around the turn of the century involving Tibetan Buddhist monks visiting for the laborious, time-consuming process of creating a sand mandala, which guests could witness.
“There were actually nine of them,” Mayer says of the monks, “and they were here every day for a week until that thing was built. (The show) was very popular.”
Other creators from foreign lands – an Indigenous wood carver from Canada and a Peruvian gourd artist, to name a couple – have been brought to Sandusky, but even with such artists being housed in the homes of board members, the costs of such shows has become largely prohibitive, Mayer says.
“The last time we had an international artist was just pre-COVID,” he says. “We had three really well-known artists from Mexico, and they were here for two weeks – and that kind of broke the bank.”
Artists aren’t paid directly to exhibit in the gallery, but the center helps with some show-related expenses and doesn’t take a portion of any sales, which is appealing to artists, Mayer says.
“We did have one artist from Hawaii (contribute works for a show this season),” he says. “He didn’t come, but he sent his work, and, of course, we had to send it back. Shipping to Hawaii is expensive.”
The center gets funding from foundations and, as you’d guess, would welcome more individual donations.
“We would love to have well-to-do people donate more than they do,” he says with a laugh.
The center doesn’t even have a website at the moment but talks involving help from the school district on a new one have taken place recently, he says.
If the Sandusky Cultural Center is a “hidden gem” and the city’s “best-kept secret,” perhaps, even nearly 50 years into its existence, it’s a matter of getting the word out more effectively?
“Getting the word out is very difficult,” says Mayer, who's had multiple artists tell him they do not know of another professional gallery at a high school. “I have always concentrated on quality (of shows). I am not interested in just filling the space.
“I’m delighted when I get tons of people,” he adds. “That’s very, very rewarding personally, that people come and they seem to enjoy it, but I’m more interested in having very fine quality for the people who do want to come.”
Here are the shows remaining in the Sandusky Cultural Center’s 2024-25 five-show season:
– “Atmosphere of Emotions,” Jan. 12 through Feb. 16.
– “A Fine Line,” March 2 through April 6
– “Here and Now,” April 27 through May 2025.