THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509090115
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
AN OLD DREAM is paying off.
Art at last is drawing new people to Downtown High Street - and particularly to the intersection at Court Street.
The city's major art gallery on the second floor of the 1846 Courthouse now has been augmented by galleries on the first floor, where the Children's Museum was housed for 10 years.
Across the street in the Tidewater Community College Visual Art Center, several galleries were constructed on the first floor to display not only student and faculty work but also to show some traveling shows.
A third corner of the intersection is occupied by Olde Towne Art Gallery, a private business that deals in original art.
``We getting a lot more people on the street and quite a few who came particularly to see art,'' Olde Towne gallery proprietor Nate Mewhinney said. ``We've been seeing a lot of new faces, a lot from Virginia Beach and Norfolk.''
About 25 years ago, a small group of Portsmouth residents dreamed of bringing art and artists to High Street. One of their projects was the formation of the Community Arts Center, an institution to enhance the city's chances of getting federal and state grants to restore the 1846 Courthouse and create exhibition galleries.
The courthouse building, which once housed Norfolk County courts, had been abandoned when Norfolk County merged with South Norfolk to form the city of Chesapeake in 1963.
The Arts Center opened 20 years ago in the old Clerk's Office adjacent to the Courthouse with changing art exhibits scheduled year around. The process of finding money for the courthouse began.
The plan to get grant money worked.
The city received about $2 million in ``adaptive reuse'' money and put at least that much taxpayer money into the courthouse renovation.
It took 10 years to complete the work.
The arts center exhibitions were confined to the old clerk's office for the decade but Portsmouth's reputation was growing. Around 1980, the late Suzanne Seidman became the curator and her extraordinary exhibitions of regional artists brought more and more people to the gallery.
The courthouse opened in 1985 with the Children's Museum on the first floor and the gallery on the second floor. Nancy Melton became director of museums and staged several spectacular events, including the Mary Rose Exhibition, a collection of artifacts from a ship that sank off Portsmouth, England, in 1545. The show was here through the summer of 1985 and almost 50,000 persons from many places in this country and from around the world visited the museum over a 12-week period.
For several years, the 1846 Courthouse continued as a drawing card to Downtown. But in 1990 attendance plummeted at the art gallery and some people began to wonder if the dreams of another generation would ever be realized.
``I think we're seeing a resurgence of interest in art,'' Museums Director Betty Burnell said. ``The growth downtown, the Children's Museum, all are bringing people to Portsmouth who are interested in the galleries.''
Burnell said the revitalized Seawall Art Show in May and the PortsEvents Gallery Art Show in the fall both have been very successful over the past two years. Those two weekend shows are measured by the sales of art to visitors and sales have been good.
Over the past several years, public attention has been focused on the new Children's Museum of Virginia, which opened last year in the former Leggett department store building.
Meanwhile, despite the zig-zags in direction and the ups and downs of financial support in the past, the arts center has been quietly re-establishing its old reputation for good shows on the second floor. Once the Children's Museum moved from the first floor, that space also was converted to auxiliary galleries.
`This offers us an opportunity to keep the courthouse open at all times,'' Burnell said. ``When we only had the second floor, the museum would be closed for 10 days each time we changed shows.''
This year when the TCC arts center opened, the art-loving public was given even more reason to visit Downtown Portsmouth. The large first-floor galleries are open to the public every day and offer works by members of the TCC faculty and their students.
``The gallery has been very successful,'' TCC exhibits coordinator Shelley Brooks said.
Brooks, a former employee of the Portsmouth Museums, said many people who visit the TCC gallery also want to tour the three-story art school that once housed The Famous department store.
``This is a very exciting place with a lot of creative energy flowing,'' she said. ``Nothing pleases me more than seeing people coming into the gallery and wanting to see the school.''
Brooks said that many people who visit the Children's Museum find their way to the corner of High and Court streets, where art reigns.
The TCC gallery is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. The 1846 Courthouse is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Olde Towne Gallery generally follows the same hours as the courthouse.
The new show on the corner this week is at the 1846 Courthouse, where a collection of new works by Ken Wright opened Thursday night.
Wright, a Chesapeake resident, has won many prizes with his abstract paintings.
``Ken Wright: Primitive Heritage'' now hanging in the courthouse gallery represents a slight change for Wright, who said he's been experimenting with African motifs. He said he's trying to ``incorporate an ethnic and primitive appeal'' into his work while retaining his signature style. Much of the new work was inspired by African cloth designs.
The show runs through Oct. 22.
In the first floor courthouse galleries, ``Gems and Jewels'' by Jack and Judy Witt of Ashland will be exhibited through Oct. 8. ``F/H Student Gallery '95, the Sequel'' will be at the TCC galleries through Sept. 17. ILLUSTRATION: THE COVER
[color photo]
Artist Ken Wright and Lori Mastemaker, senior curatorial
assistant at the Art Center of the Portsmouth Museums, plan a new
exhibit in a picture by staff photographer Jim Walker.
Photos by Mark Mitchell
The sculpture titled ``Rodante Wind,'' by Jack Witt, is on display
at the Art Center in the 1846 Courthouse.
Nathan Mewhinney, owner of the Olde Towne Gallery, a private
business that deals in original art, is encouraged by the increased
activity at the High Street intersection. ``We've been seeing a lot
of new faces, a lot from Virginia Beach and Norfolk,'' he said.
TCC ARTS SCHEDULE
TCC VISUAL ARTS CENTER
Paintings by Amani Carille and Tom Siegmund, Sept. 30-Nov. 5;
opening reception 8 p.m. Sept. 29.
Annual TCC Art Faculty Exhibition, Nov. 18-Jan. 14; opening
reception 8 p.m. Nov. 17.
Mixed media/paintings by Gayle Paul, paintings by John Zambelis
and jewelry by James Brennan, Jan. 27-March 24; opening reception 8
p.m. Jan. 26.
25th Annual TCC Student Art Show, April 13-May 12; opening and
awards presentation, 2 p.m. April 21.
Sean Stewart: Printmaker, June 1-July 12; opening reception, 8
p.m. May 31.
Sculpture and mixed media by Georgie Dunn and prints by Ed
Zingraff, July 27-Sept. 8; opening reception, 8 p.m. July 26.
by CNB