The
natural light streaming into their new home on two floors in an office
building.The light is perfect for painting and creating other works of
art.
For
Carolyn Phillips, D'Art Center executive director, the move to the new
D'Art at Duke "is all positive" and continues a tradition started in
1986 when the collaborative studio and gallery first opened in
Norfolk. For artists like Vonnie Whitworth, a pastel artist on at least
her third D'Art location, "it feels good to be here." Ken Wright, a
long-time D'Art artist who creates with acrylics, likes his
lighted-filled studio where he can "focus on painting."
The artists moved to their new home recently with help from a recent $25,000 Hampton Roads Community Foundation
grant that paid for building enhancements and moving expenses. "To
call this grant a lifesaver would be an understatement," Phillips says.
In
addition, a $5,000 grant from the Mermaid Fund helped sustain the
visual art center when it had to vacate its former building. The Norfolk
Arts and Humanities Commission started the Mermaid Fund at the
community foundation in 2015. A $2,000 matching grant from the Business
Consortium for Arts Support, which the community foundation helps fund,
also helped sustain the art center while its artists were displaced.
On March 23, 2016 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
the business consortium will sponsor an open house and benefit at the
new D'Art at Duke . The center at 740 Duke Street is open Tuesdays
through Saturdays from 10 .m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.
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| Artist Ken Wright and Carolyn Phillips, D'Art director, are happy about the new center. |
