Surel Mitchell
A Retrospective
Features some of the artist’s earliest watercolors, through several phases of her life and her artistic expression. The works are on loan from the private collection of the Mitchell Family, local collectors and friends of Surel’s. A limited number of pieces from the Mitchell family collection will be for sale, with proceeds generously donated by the family to Surel’s Place.
Surel Lee Mitchell was born December 4, 1944 to Ulek and Nettie Tosher in New York City. Her childhood was spent in Pottstown, PA, watching her father paint in his home studio. After moving to Idaho with her family in the 1970s, she became a long-time docent at the Boise Gallery of Art (now the Boise Art Museum), a member of the Boise City Arts Commission and the Garden City Arts Commission. She helped create the Boise City Visual Chronicle and received the Idaho Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2000 and a Boise City Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Arts and History in 2011.
After building her home and studio in an underdeveloped and underserved section of Garden City, she worked with city leaders to create a special zoning district to encourage the arts and creativity to thrive. Her work has been exhibited extensively, including in New York, Washington, DC, and Kuala Lumpur, and it is in private and corporate collections throughout the country. After she died on October 10, 2011, her daughter, Rebecca Mitchell Kelada, and close friend, Matilda Rose Bubb, founded Surel’s Place to support artists in order to continue her legacy.
After her death, the Garden City Council officially named her neighborhood after her: The Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District. Her home, now an artist residency called Surel’s Place, is an anchor in the district. Surel’s Place welcomes artists from around the world for monthlong residencies in our Garden City home and studio. Each artist spends a month working on their process and producing art, and each conducts at least one community workshop and a final installation, performance, reading or talk.
We launched Studio Residencies for local artists when pandemic travel restrictions stalled traditional residencies. We continued that program and opened the Studios on 35th, offering year-long subsidized studio residencies to three artists to help solidify their artistic practices.
Surel’s Place organizes and manages the First Friday Art and Studio Strolls that showcase more than 50 artists who live and/or work in Garden City’s Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District. Our Green Box is a portable WWII Army office converted into an installation space for local and visiting artists. Throughout the year we host short exhibitions, performances, film screenings and more in our main residency.
The Garden City Placemaking Fund partnership with business owners and artists was launched in 2022 to give local, emerging and BIPOC artists paid opportunities to create public art and to develop the relationships and trust that can help our community face challenges like climate resiliency, affordable housing, public safety and health and more.
Finally, Surel’s Place fiscally sponsors groups engaged in projects that dovetail with our mission. This past year we helped the Idaho Prison Arts Collective create their own 501(c)(3), started working with Ming Gallery to help it transition into a nonprofit, and swiftly launched the BIPOC-led Voces Internship of Idaho. We also manage grants for the Idaho Arts, Culture and History Antiracism Coalition.