River District Artists rise again
A dozen River District Artists, including four Old Rag Gallery photographers, will be celebrating a special event this Saturday (Oct. 1), namely a grand opening in their new space at Ginger Hill Antiques. You’re invited to join them from 2 to 5 p.m. for this rather poignant reunion (there will be food and drink, and of course lots of art).
The artists include photographers Ray Boc, Bette Hillman, Joyce Harman and Francie Schroeder. Painters, watercolor and oils, fabric gurus with rug hooking treasures, potters, glasswork artists and printmakers are represented by Marilyn Armor, Gary Lohman, Bonnie Dixon, Jennifer Webb, Michele Soderman, Kate Anderson, Sally Mello and Mary Allen.
The River District Artists draw their name from the former River District Arts, home until this summer of some 18 potters, printmakers, painters and photographers who rented gallery space, plus the Living Sky Foundation, and the 22 members of the decadesold nonprofit Middle Street Gallery artists’ cooperative — members who, by the way, agreed this week to move into the space above Sperryville’s Before & After cafe on Main Street. River District Arts owner Jerome Niessen purchased the River District Arts building in 2009 and envisioned the cavernous former apple packing shed as a Torpedo Factory-like center for artists’ studios, galleries and a state-of-theart restaurant. As some suggest, the venture was better suited to a visionary with committed roots in the county than an absentee landlord who left tenants to fend pretty much for themselves.
Much like the phoenix, however, the fabled bird that is cyclically reborn, the artists have risen from the ashes (and, according to Greek myth, have another 1,400 years before they have to go through this again). The potters of Rappahannock Pottery Collective, Doris Jones, Sara Adams, Nancy Nord and Susan Hornbostel, have found a home in the Copper Fox Antiques complex; RDA alum Dabney Kirchman now shares with fellow fiber artist Jennifer Heverly a new Blue Ridge Artisans studio/gallery space at the Sperryville Schoolhouse annex — where, upstairs, nature photographer Jackie Labovitz also recently opened the expansive Cottage Curator gallery.
At Ginger Hill, with signature exuberance, co-owner Berni Olson has welcomed RDA with open arms. The gingerhillantiques.com website lists not only the treasures she and Dan Lewis purvey, but also now celebrates and welcomes the artists. Under the gallery’s huge LED lights, smiles abound as artists work diligently to arrange their works in anticipation of the grand opening. A feeling of hope pervades and also feelings of thanks, to Berni and Dan, for extending a warm business embrace and allowing these talents to share their gifts once again.
— Chris Green