INSECT ROAD SHOW
From an article in The Santa Fe New Mexican, April 26, 2022
By Teya Vitu
tvitu@sfnewmexican.com
The traveling bug show’s new stop is the Artisan art supply store on Cerrillos Road. Ollie Greer’s bug collectionw.as on display since 2013 at the Harrell House Bug Museum in the De Vargas Center and then for most of 2021 at Santa Fe Place mall. The newest home for the creepy-crawlies has taken shape since April 7 among art supplies at Artisan upon invitation from co-owner Ron Whitmore.
“I gave Ollie a call,” said Whitmore, an Artisan co-owner. “What are you doing with your bugs?”
Greer’s 2,500-bug display collection had been in Harrell House storage since Harrell House and Traveler’s Market were asked to leave the mall anchor space in early January to make way for Conn’s HomePlus. Meanwhile,. Wade Harrell has returned with a mini-exhibit of live critters at El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe Winter Market.
Whitmore invited Greer to bring his insect display cases to Artisan – and hired Greer part time to be the store’s bug curator. Most of the displays are now right at the front of the store at2601 Cerrillos Road.
“I was totally delighted,” said Greer, who describes his Artisan job as “bug host.”
Whitmore and Greer have known each other for 20 years. They became• acquainted while Greer was a chef at the Ore House from 1986 to 2009 and had his bug collection in the restaurant basement.
“I’ve always loved Ollie’s bugs,” Whitmore said, recalling Greer often taking him down to the Ore House basement many years ago. “I’m interested in stuff like that.”
Whitmore has had a resident python at Artisan for 20 years: first Delilah and now her offspring, the 12-foot Delphino. Artisan has sponsored the Artisan Pythons Little League baseball team for 20 years.
“So far everybody’s ecstatic about it,” Whitmore said about the bug display at Artisan.
The first school field trip came to the store April 13, and Greer was the tour-guide. Greer is typically at the store from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays “and whenever we schedule him” to talk about his bugs with interested customers, Whitmore said.
“I think it enhances any retail store,” Whitmore said. “You have to create an experience at the store.”
Greer has 32 insect display cases of many sizes, up to the massive 8-foottalland 5-foot-wide case that weighs400 pounds. About 2,500 insects have been on public display for a decade, but he has another 6,500 at home.
“I have bugs on display that no other museum has on display;” he said. “People have told me I have the most beautiful and spectacular display anywhere in this country.
“The Artisan display is open-ended, but Greer has bigger ambitions.
Wade Harrell has told The New Mexican. he applied for nonprofit status for the Harrell House Bug Museum, with the goal to raise enough money to buy a permanent space. If• a permanent Harrell House location becomes a reality, Greer said he is willing to partner with Harrell again.
In the meantime, Greer recently launched a crawlywood.com website to see if he can take his collection on the road.
“I got an agent,” Greer said. “I want to try to get the bugs marketed and rented at the museums.
“He is offering three-month and six-month exhibitions of the collection now at Artisan. He also is offering a world premiere option of all 9,000 of his bugs, including thousands he is still• mounting in display cases at home.
Right now, Greer has 500 each of beetles, butterflies and moths mounted and on display. He has another 1,200 of each at home.
He wants to create three of the8-by-5-foot display cases for each of those species and send them on tour.
As much as Whitmore is a fan of Greer and his bugs, Greer has mutual regard for Artisan.
“I have been a customer of Artisan since I moved here in 1986,” Greer said.