MOUNT VERNON — Downtown Mount Vernon enhanced its art scene with the opening of The Gallery on Gambier at 14 E. Gambier St.
The community celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday.
Owners Kurt and Lorraine (Lorry) Wendling are stained glass artists, working in the medium for about 20 years. The gallery is home to the couple’s business, Wendling Glass Creations.
It also features around 20 artists who work in a variety of mediums, including watercolors, acrylics, oils, and pastels.
Mayor Matt Starr said the gallery offers a wonderful display of art, noting it is nice to see artists get paid and valued for their pieces.
“When you think about the quality of work and the talent of the people who are up here and who participate in creating visual storytelling, it’s really quite inspiring,” he said.
“This is exactly the kind of a unique storefront experience that we want to have here in Mount Vernon.”
Kurt Wendling said, “We’re just excited to be here and be part of the community and have wonderful artists that represent. They bring their talents and make us look good.”
The duo shared space last year in the Front Porch Guild in Granville, along with Meredith Martin and Eric Mize.
Unfortunately, Kurt Wendling said, the guild had to close.
“So we were looking for other opportunities, and I needed a place to teach because I got tired of driving to Delaware and downtown to teach stained glass,” he said.
“I found this place and turned this into an art gallery, framing center, and classroom.”
Creative collaboration thrives inside gallery
In addition to the Wendlings’ stained glass creations, The Gallery on Gambier features a little bit of everything.
“We like a variety, so if another artist comes and wants to show here, it’s got to be something unique that’s different than what we already have,” Wendling said.
“We just got the photographers on board. I brought two on, they’re both local, but one does urban photography and one does more nature-diffused kind of atmospheric photography, so they’re very different.”
The Wendlings own and curate the shop. They keep 40% of sales, and the artists receive 60%.
Half of the artists are local to Knox County. Others live nearby, including in Lexington, Dresden, Alexandria, Buckeye Lake, Westerville, and Lewis Center.
“Every other month we’ll have a feature artist,” Wendling said. “The whole front area gets set up for the feature art, and we throw a party and have refreshments and music and all kinds of stuff.”
The couple also offers classes in various media. A recent class made suffused glass ornaments for Christmas. Another workshop was on copper embossing.
Upcoming classes include birds in watercolor and a Mother’s Day workshop on stamping totes.
I’ve got a couple of other artists that are interested in teaching as well,” Wendling said.
“I’ll be teaching stained glasses, primarily the beginner stained glass, but I also have workshops which are more project-oriented. Then I’ll expand into three-dimensional and advanced classes, and fused glass as well.”
The gallery will list events and workshops on its Facebook page and website.
Completing the circle
The Wendlings moved to town two decades ago and were looking for something to do. They learned about Sue Lybarger, a local stained-glass artist who owned a shop and taught at the Knox County Career Center.
“We took two classes with her, a beginner and advanced class, and we just fell in love with it,” Kurt said.
Lybarger moved out of the area, and the Wendlings lost contact.
Last year, Wendling taught a student at The Arts Castle in Delaware. When recounting his background, he mentioned Lybarger’s name, and the student responded with, “I know Sue, we’re best friends. We do everything together.”
“Sue lives in Johnstown now, so we reconnected, and she’s excited for us. She’s doing pet portraits now with a colored pencil,” Wendling said.
In addition to the arts, The Gallery on Gambier offers custom picture framing.
Kurt Wendling previously worked at the Blue Gem Shop on Hamilton Road in Whitehall.
“I framed a lot of limited edition prints back in my college day, so I have a lot of experience framing,” he said.
The Wendlings join The Annex, Pine Row Studio, the Schnormeier and Coleman galleries, and Kudos in showcasing local artists downtown.
“If you’re interested in arts, this is becoming quite a little art strip here,” Wendling said.
The gallery officially opened Jan. 1 after giving the public a sneak peek during a Christmas event on Nov. 29, 2025.
On Jan. 1, the shop went to its official full-time hours, noon to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.
