Two retired lawyers, one with long ties to the area, are making a big bet on contemporary art in Chesterton. 

Timothy and Ellen Kollar opened Gallery 1882 in late May in the city’s charming downtown, in a building they expertly renovated.

The result is a world-class gallery you’d expect to find in New York, Chicago, or any major city. It’s a stunner of a two-story space with soaring ceilings, lots of light and first-rate art from contemporary artists around the nation. 

The gallery will host three or four exhibits a year, each lasting about two months. The next exhibit, Polychrome, opens Saturday, Aug. 1 with a reception from 5 to 9 pm CT. 

The Kollars moved to Dune Acres full time a few years ago after spending several decades in Chicago and Washington D.C., Tim as a government lawyer and Ellen as a corporate lawyer.

Tim grew up in Dune Acres. He and his wife often returned to the Dunes to visit family and friends. 

The two have long had a strong interest in the arts, and were executive producers of the film Akron, which won awards at several festivals in 2015-2016.

In 2023, the couple bought two buildings at 115 and 117 Broadway in Chesterton. The two-story building at 115, constructed in 1882, was home to Bartels Hardware until the early 1970s and most recently was home to Red Cup Cafe. The one-story 117 Broadway building had been a law office until Red Cup moved into it after the Kollars set about renovating the two-story building.  

They placed a premium on making the space entirely accessible. The couple installed an elevator and a ramp at the front door so that everyone could enjoy the art inside. Tim was particularly gratified when a man in a wheelchair visited to see the gallery’s first exhibit and thanked him profusely.

To find artists for the gallery, the Kollars hired two art experts on either coast: Ellen’s brother, Jim O’Donnell, an independent exhibition maker and advisor based in Seattle; and Heather Hubbs, who grew up with Tim and who is executive director of the New Art Dealers Alliance since 2004.

With Jim and Heather’s guidance, the Kollars visited artists’ studios all over and began to plot the sort of gallery they wanted to open in Chesterton. 

The gallery’s second show, Polychrome, is a joint exhibition of the work of Brooklyn-based artists Justin Adian and Richard Tinkler. It focuses on the use of color as “both material and conceptual force,” according to a press release. Adian’s artworks are created by stretching oil enamel- or spray-painted canvas around foam cushions. His work has been shown at the Dallas Museum of Art, among other places. Tinkler, who has had solo shows at 56 Henry in New York, Halsey McCay Gallery in East Hampton and Albert Merola Gallery in Provincetown, creates kaleidoscopic oil paintings and geometric, intricately layered abstract drawings. 

Tinkler and Adian met at university in Texas years ago, but this is the first time their art has been shown together. I love the way the works complement each other. It’s an inspired pairing.

Polychrome runs through Oct. 12. The gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays.

A small gift shop with art books and modern pottery—hand-thrown for the gallery by Michigan City ceramist Bryan Kerrigan—occupies a corner of the second floor. 

“We think that visitors to the National Park look for interesting things to do in the surrounding areas,” Ellen says, “and that Gallery 1882, and the whole of historic downtown Chesterton, offer an exciting, interesting place for them to explore.”

Ellen and Tim hope that the gallery will also attract locals, people with second-homes in the area, day-trippers from the Chicago and greater Indiana/Michigan areas, and art lovers from all over “who are keen to travel to see interesting art,” Ellen says. “We strongly believe, If you build it they will come!”

And come you should! Diva doesn’t typically rate, rank or review, but let me say, 10 stars!

Gallery 1882, 115 Broadway, Chesterton