Artlink

Opened 1978

Founding: Artlink's own history begins in 1976, when Bruce Linker founded Linker's Gallery in his apartment at 1117½ Broadway to showcase emerging artists — inspired, by his later account, by the cohort of Fort Wayne Art School students and graduates who had nowhere to show. In the summer of 1978 Artlink opened at 1126 Broadway, founded by a group of young artists to promote awareness of emerging artists and art forms (its fortieth-anniversary release compresses the story to "founded in an apartment on Broadway" in August 1978). The first exhibit, in September 1978, was a solo show by Maurice Papier; the Encores exhibition of the year's artists debuted in 1979.

The Fishman years and after: Betty Fishman, involved from Artlink's early days, became executive director in 1990 and served sixteen years, to 2006 — taking charge, by her own later account, when there was not enough money to cover payroll, and building the gallery into a standing-room-only civic room. In 1991 Artlink became a funded partner of Arts United and moved to the Hall Community Arts Center at 437 East Berry Street; in 2011 it moved to the Auer Center at 300 East Main, doubling its gallery space. Fishman died on November 11, 2024, three weeks short of her 101st birthday; Arts United had given her its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. Karen Thompson's Art in the City documents the gallery movement Artlink led.

Sources:

1. Artlink, "History" (artlinkfw.org) — the 1976 Linker's Gallery, the 1978 opening at 1126 Broadway, the 1991 Hall Center move, the 2011 Auer Center move; Artlink news release, July 2018 (Around Fort Wayne) — the fortieth anniversary, the Encores debut, Fishman's directorship.
2. Fort Wayne Museum of Art blog (December 2023) and Betty Fishman obituary, Blackwell Funeral Home (November 2024) — her Artlink tenure 1990–2006, the 2016 Arts United Lifetime Achievement Award, her death; Input Fort Wayne, "How the Fort Wayne Art School underpinned Fort Wayne's art and culture scene" (2025) — Linker's inspiration.