The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Gillespie, Goldenberg & God’s work
Exhibit at Knights of Columbus Museum illustrates ‘The Creation’
NEW HAVEN » Sam Goldenberg of West Haven has a keen ear for music, having organized and promoted jazz concerts over the years at Yale. He also has an eye for visual art, especially created by former student Bruce Gillespie of Danbury.
Goldenberg is a retired special-education teacher; Gillespie, in his 60s, has Down syndrome. Their lives intersected at the Danbury Regional Center in the 1970s, when the teacher noticed the student’s artistic ability and had him make drawings of jazz musicians that became part of posters promoting the music events (the concerts were begun to raise money for special ed). Gillespie’s art also was chosen for a 1976 Special Olympics booklet.
As we wrote in a 2015 article, Goldenberg and Gillespie lost touch over the years after Gillespie’s family moved out of state, but they reunited in the winter of 2014-15 and the result was an exhibit of Gillespie’s work at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven’s gallery that spring.
The collaborations aren’t over. In fact, there’s a current exhibit, “The Creation,” at the Knights of Columbus Museum on State Street that kicked off with a touching ceremony featuring Gillespie in November. Again, the story flashes back to art that Goldenberg encouraged and Gillespie drew four decades ago.
In 1976, the two began a collaboration to illustrate a children’s Bible. To create each illustration, Goldenberg would read the Biblical passage before Gillespie would draw, explaining the verses if needed.
“I’ve saved those drawings; I never had them displayed at all, because we lost contact with Bruce,” Goldenberg said recently.
Goldenberg mentioned the drawings to Andy Wolf, director of the city’s Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, who referred him to Peter Sonski of the K of C Museum.
The resulting exhibit at the museum will be up through late January. The opener was special, said Goldenberg, drawing about 40 people, including 10 members of Gillespie’s family.
“We presented Bruce with a medal, which was great. He was just so excited. It was really, really a remarkable event that day,” said Goldenberg.
Gillespie arrived wearing several of his Special Olympics medals, because he wears them every day, said Goldenberg.
“So we were meeting the day before to discuss the reception and I said, ‘You know what Bruce would really love? Some sort of medal or something.’ So we got a little thing from the gift (shop) and they made it into a ribbon thing so we could put it on him. And he thought that was the greatest; that was a like a million dollars to him!”
The framed drawings are accompanied by a booklet with the Biblical quotes used to inspire Gillespie at the time, one of which reads:
The resulting scene of Gillespie’s makes Goldenberg chuckle with amazement after all these years.
“He throws in a crab or a skunk or a seal — it’s a touch of very real feeling that went on but ... it’s also clear,” said Goldenberg, who sometimes had to affix more paper onto the original drawing sheet because Gillespie said he needed more room.
The art world hasn’t necessarily noticed Gillespie’s gentle genius but Goldenberg has one more set of drawings (of a darker topic) to exhibit at some point. He hopes Gillespie’s artwork will shine a better light on Down syndrome people in Connecticut. He’s not talking about fund-raising, by the way. Goldenberg said none of the drawings are for sale.
Like most artists, Gillespie has come far — from humble origins in a Christmas season that
“So God brought all the animals to man. And man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven, and all the wild beasts...”
FROM PAGE 1 celebrates such things.
“I did my college thesis on Bruce, and I went back and read for this,” said Goldenberg. “And I had the interviews with the parents. And they said that when he was born (in 1952, medical officials) said this boy is basically a vegetable, ‘and you should basically leave him here right from birth.’ And that was a little bit of a shock. And the parents went home for three days, came back and said, ‘No, we’re going to take the child home.’ So the parents went against the whole grain of the time.”
In 2012, Gillespie moved back to Connecticut to live with his nephew. He continues to draw at a day program in Danbury and participates in the Special Olympics.
And his work hangs in a museum. In the 1970s, Goldenberg for his thesis showed Gillespie’s work to Mother Miriam Benedict, who said, “His drawings… are alive, vibrant with movement and color, consistent. Despite his handicap, he has the gift of intuitively grasping the essence of his subject and of being able to express it in his art.”
The Knights museum is free, notes Goldenberg, and features free parking underneath it. There is also a large annual show featurng creches from Germany.