Visual Art

Mill & Max Contemplative Arts Gallery

History: Our outreach in the visual arts began in 2015 when we joined the LexArts Gallery Hop. Seeking a name to identify ourselves, we chose Mill & Max, which identifies the street corner on which our Shambhala Center sits.

Our Mission is to use art to raise awareness of mindfulness, meditation and spirituality. To us, art is not a thing, but an expression of our pure potential. Whether as maker or as audience, art helps us be in the present moment – in much the same way meditation does. Lexington Shambhala’s Mill & Max Gallery provides a multi-use community space to foster engagement with the whole of art and its role in our lives, so that we may enliven, awaken, and connect to the world as inspired human beings.

Connecting with Mill & Max: Our Curator is Karl Lindstrom, who has been with us since our beginning in 2015. Mill & Max has its own website and facebook page, where we have an application form for artists to apply to have us host their exhibits.

Past Exhibits: Videos of most of our past exhibits are archived in our dedicated YouTube channel, Mill and Max Gallery. Since we’ve reopened from the Covid-19 lockdown, we have had 5 exhibits: Wingspan Redux in May 2021, Bonsai Art in July 2021, and Connecting Energies in November 2021, Synthesis in March 2022, and Offerings: Vignettes from the Earth in May 2022. Vincent Dummer has created virtual tours of each of these exhibits, so that they may be enjoyed remotely, and after the live exhibits have closed. Here are links to those 5 virtual tours.

  • Offerings: Vignettes from the Earth, 2022, May 20 – Present
  • Synthesis, 2022, Mar 18 – Apr 10
  • Connecting Energies, 2021, Nov 19 – 2022, Jan
  • Bonsai Art, 2021, July 16 – 18
  • Wingspan Redux, 2021, Apr 2 – June 2, This exhibit was originally installed in Mar 2020, and scheduled for that month’s Gallery Hop. Thanks to Covid, the March 2020 Hop was cancelled, and the Center was closed for a year. The exhibit remained in place during our year-long Covid lockdown. Unfortunately, our artist, Carleton Wing, died from Covid and did not live to see his exhibit with a live audience a year later.