Tumalo Art Co.’s current home in the Old Mill, where it moved in 2009 after stints in Tumalo and on Greenwood Avenue.

There was a time when Tumalo Art Co. was actually located in Tumalo.

Wildlife and landscape painter Susan Luckey Higdon, current owner of the Old Mill gallery, was there from the start of the artist-run space, which opened in spring 2002 in the Tumalo Junction strip mall.

The gallery was an offshoot of an art mentoring group called the Partners Art Guild. Higdon was among the people who were in the group with painter Marta Batha, whose husband, Vince Batha, built the mall, according to Higdon.

“We were able to start there because, you know, she had a sweet deal — as in free — for a while,” Higdon said with a laugh. “She was the one who really felt strongly about getting a group of artists together, and started with our arts mentoring group, which had probably 10 or 15 artists, who were doing our work professionally.”

Not everyone in the mentoring group became members. Higdon isn’t sure just how many did, but in addition to her and Batha, 2002 gallery listings in the Bulletin archives list artists Annie Ferder, Chari Grenfell, Janet Guiley, Dee Hansen, Tracy Leagjeld, Mary McAuliffe and Karen Piedmont.

Batha managed the gallery, and Higdon and the other member artists each worked several days a month.

“It was a commitment,” she said. The Partners Art Guild, which had been going for several years prior to the gallery opening, began to fade away, Higdon said.

Tumalo Art Co., however, has endured. It wasn’t always easy, especially in the early days. Foot traffic in that location at that time was nonexistent.

“We were lucky to have three people in a day. We were really off the beaten path,” Higdon said, laughing. “We learned a lot at that point.”

By the fall of 2004, Batha was ready to call it a day. Higdon and Leagjeld partnered to pick up the reins and keep Tumalo Art Co. going.

They invited along the other artists that had been part of the gallery in Tumalo — some opted in, some didn’t — and invited more local artists to join them at the new home they scouted, a former sign shop at 136 NW Greenwood Ave. in downtown Bend, right next door to Cascades Theatre.

“We pretty much handpicked the artists,” Higdon said. “Some of them we didn’t even know — just people whose artwork we liked around Bend.”

These included landscape photographer Bruce Jackson and painter Alisa Huntley, who are still with the gallery.

“Susan started recruiting artists, and I was one of the people that she recruited,” Jackson said. At the time, he’d just wrapped up a tenure with Mockingbird Gallery. “So the timing was really good.”

Landscape photography affords a lot of solitude, and Jackson did not have much of an affinity for group environments, he said.

“So there was a little bit of hesitancy there, but then I thought, ‘You know what? This feels right.’ And so I went with it,” he said. “The experience I’ve had through these years has helped me understand that if it’s the right group, I’m open to working with it.”

All of the members worked together to clean, paint and remodel the space. Jackson and then-member Gary Vincent did much of the carpentry.

From that time forward, TAC has consistently had about 15 members at any given time. Members work the retail shifts two and a half days a month and pay reduced gallery commissions when their works sell. Additionally, the gallery represents other artists who don’t work in the gallery and don’t pay dues in a more traditional gallery-artist arrangement. Many on the roster are former members, such as Annie Ferder and Mary Marquiss.

Jackson said that he likes working the retail shifts, which allow him to connect one-on-one with potential art buyers.

“For me personally, that’s really the best way to sell my work, to be able to represent myself,” he said. “I felt like my best opportunities to sell work happen on Saturdays, especially since we moved to the Old Mill because that’s when we get more people in the gallery. So I like to sign up for Saturdays. With some of the members, it’s kind of the running joke.”

Perhaps the biggest drama from throughout TAC’s years occurred shortly after it started its 4-year run on Greenwood Avenue.

“On Father’s Day there was a huge monsoon-like storm,” Higdon said. “I got a call from the guys renting the space above the gallery that water was flowing out the front door! We found out we were at the bottom of the drainage from west of us. It was a river right through the gallery. I called everyone and we all started working getting the water out and no art was lost. It was a huge bonding experience. Anytime it rained we were always on guard.”

With its affordability and high ceilings, “It was a wonderful industrial space,” Higdon said. “The back door was one of those garage doors that opened, but we were not a destination. We were a destination as in people drove by and thought, ‘Oh, we should stop there.’”

Foot traffic increased to maybe five to 10 people a day, better than in Tumalo, but not much. However, during the monthly First Friday Art Walk, people did manage to hoof it the couple of blocks from the heart of downtown to the gallery, which made for fun events.

In 2009, the Old Mill District approached the gallery about moving there.

“We took a real leap of faith right then,” Higdon said, noting that was during the recession. “Even though they gave us what for them was a nice deal, for us, it was, ‘Gulp.’”

It proved to be a wise move. May will mark the gallery’s 11th year in the Old Mill.

“That’s honestly why we’re still going. Because had we stayed (on Greenwood), with the amount of traffic that we got, I’m sure that we wouldn’t have made it through the recession,” she said. “Being in a location with good foot traffic is way better than being off the beaten path.”

About 40 artists, including members and represented artists, have cycled through said Higdon.

“Life just happens, and different life changes happen. But it’s not a revolving door at all. It’s a very stable group,” she said.

“The thing that really sets this group apart from so many, I think, is that all the people are such high-quality human beings that it just really works well,” Jackson said.

And one thing is certain, he added: Higdon holds it all together.

“Susan Luckey Higdon is the absolute glue that keeps the gallery and artists moving forward on a clear path. She is the heart and soul of Tumalo Art Co.”