After two years of renovations, Hartnell’s art gallery is back.

For the first time since the pandemic, the Hartnell College Gallery at the college’s main campus in Salinas is fully open. That happens after a Covid-19 hiatus, immediately followed by a two-year-long renovation of the Visual Arts Center (Building J), where the arts department and the gallery has been housed since 1977. During the renovation, art classes relocated to two venues (mainly to Building N), while the ceramics class was moved to the college’s Alisal Campus.

The grand opening took place on Oct. 2, marking the beginning of a new academic year, with a pop-up exhibit, Roots to Horizon, that looked back at the achievements of the Visual Arts’ former staff and alumni. Another exhibit, José Ortiz: Retrospective, opens Thursday, Nov. 6 (4-6pm) and will remain on display for two months. Ortiz was chosen for the first large exhibit after the renovation due to his outsized role as a Salinas artist and a community leader.

The original Hartnell College Gallery was established in the 1960s, when Hartnell art instructors Joe Bragdon and Robert Butterbaugh set up a gallery in the Works Progress Administration building on Homestead Avenue. One notable event was an exhibition and workshop by Ansel Adams.

Since the gallery moved to Building J in the 1970s, exhibits had been organized regularly until the renovation, and even during the building’s closure, the community of artists that grew around the Visual Arts department sporadically used the space, opening to the public on an appointment basis.

The $8.5 million building renovation was funded through Measure T, a $167 million bond approved by voters in 2016, with support from the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, an anonymous donor, the Burrell Leonard Art Gallery Endowment and other private donors through the Hartnell College Foundation. The reopening marks the 90th anniversary of Hartnell’s Art Department (established in 1936) and the 50th anniversary of the building.

The renovation brought a new heating and ventilation system, as well as LED lighting. The gallery itself kept the original floor plan, but proper storage space for the collection was created, and a new entrance with a 15-foot-long glass section that makes it possible to look inside.

The reactivation of the space comes with a new gallery director, painter Marshall Sharpe, who has been serving as assistant professor of art at Hartnell since August. As a gallery director he replaced Gary Smith, a long-time faculty member who retired in the 2000s as an instructor, but remained in charge of the gallery until Sharpe’s arrival, trying to keep the space alive and the exhibits going.

“The gallery is a wonderful part of the arts program,” says Smith, who is delighted the venue is finally fully open. “It really serves the community well.”

The Visual Arts Department has two faculty members at the moment, with plans to add at least one more.