Interviews with the October Exhibit Sponsors

While waiting for fabulous images from last week's openings (thanks John!), we thought it worthwhile to feature the viewpoints and motivations of this month's exhibit sponsors.  Gardy Bloemers and Nick Duke sponsored John Grant's "Fairy Tales and Reveries," while Sarah and Steve Delgado sponsored Marko Maetamm's "Happily Ever After."  Both pairs have been involved with the gallery for a long stretch, and we are grateful their friendship enabled both exhibits to come to the Charlottesville community.

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The SSG team sketched out a series of simple questions and here's what they had to say about their philanthropy:

Q - Why did you choose to get involved with SSG?  What's special about this organization?

Nick Duke: "I especially believe that Second Street Gallery and its support of living artists has the capacity to bring a broad range and strata of people together in Charlottesville for needed dialogue—the more socially conscious and confrontational the better! The diversity of contemporary art shown at Second Street inspires, stimulates and provokes us. It can help us understand ourselves better and connect us to the human spirit."

Steve Delgado: "SSG appeals to me because it represents an oasis of independent thinking in Charlottesville.  The shows I've contributed to and the initiatives I've stewarded with SSG are unique and represent a different mode of seeing, thinking, and creation.  I just believe it's really important to support  organizations that encourage that kind of growth."

Q - What appealed to you about this artist or this series of their work?

Nick Duke: "John Grant’s work is evolving in such glorious directions! I love his new work and its new, more metaphorical and dreamlike course that generates emotional contact. I am a big fan of photography and especially love the work of Walker Evans, Edward and Cole Weston, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Imogen Cunningham, Bruce Davidson, Stephen Shore, Emmet Gowin, Sally Mann, Duane Michaels, Peter Beard, Jerry Uelsmann, Nicholas Nixon, Joel Meyerowitz, Rogelio Lopez Marín (Gory), Gordon Parks and many others. John’s work simply resonates with me—and I’m sure it will with many others."

Steve Delgado: "Again, I chose to support this show because it's a new voice, a new perspective.  Maetamm's work is something most people wouldn't ordinarily discover, because of where he's from and where we live.  It's unique, which bolsters SSG's ability to be that metaphorical oasis."

Q - Why should the Cville community come to, get involved, and support SSG?

Nick Duke: "Second Street seeks to involve a diverse regional public in the rich and active language of contemporary visual art.  The Gallery can be a catalyst and an advocate for new ideas, discourses, and trends in contemporary art. The Gallery’s outreach in schools and in the community is critical to exposing our next generation to new ways of self-expression."

Steve Delgado: "A vital part of SSG's mission is to unite artists and the community.  If arts and culture are what make Charlottesville so wonderful, so energetic, and relevant then we need to make every effort to support the organizations that deliver quality programs.  Especially now, in tough economic times, arts are the first to suffer.  It's a valuable thing to have a high caliber gallery right around the corner."

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So there you have it, right from the sponsors' mouths.  Value is a very personal metric.  But judging from our attendance during the First Fridays' opening (nearly 600!), we know that you care about SSG.  Consider transferring that to volunteering your time, joining as a member at any level, or contributing a gift when you are able!  Every bit helps, and every bit protects Cville's contemporary  "oasis"!