For the past several years, the Gallery on Valley has been quietly becoming something much larger than an art gallery. Located on Valley Street in the heart of Scottsville, the gallery has become a gathering place for artists, residents, visitors, students and anyone looking for a place to slow down and appreciate creativity.
As the Gallery looks toward its third year, the organization is building on that momentum while finding new ways to connect art with the broader community.
“It has almost become like a community center,” said Stevie Loebs of the Gallery on Valley. “People are just hungry for that kind of thing. They come together and appreciate the art.”
The Gallery is one of three major components of the Scottsville Center for Arts and Nature (SCAN). The organization, which has been part of Scottsville for approximately 20 years, is dedicated to supporting and promoting the arts, nature and community. The Gallery itself came about through the generosity of an angel donor who dreamed of having an art gallery in her hometown. She donated the building, giving SCAN the opportunity to establish a permanent home for the arts in Scottsville and providing a significant foundation for what has followed.
Today, the Gallery is largely run by volunteers, with around 15 members committed to helping keep the doors open, maintaining the property and finding new ways to engage the community. From yard work and litter cleanup to welcoming visitors and helping with exhibitions, the Gallery depends on people who believe in what it can offer Scottsville.
And people are responding. What began with perhaps one or two visitors a day has grown into a steady stream of people stopping in to see the artwork and experience the space. Nearly 60 people visited the space during a recent First Friday, a Gallery event that offers guests free wine tastings while they browse the artwork and connect with the artists and visitors.
“Art elevates a community,” Loebs said. “We believe that the arts community is going to inject lifesblood into Scottsville.”
That sense of community is increasingly visible along Valley Street, where unique shops and businesses are giving visitors more reasons to walk the street, stop in and spend time downtown.
“I love when I’m sitting on the front porch and see people walking on the street with their fresh plants and six cupcakes,” Loebs said. “It’s pretty great.”
Plants from We Grow. Cupcakes from Baked on the James. Lunch at Red Rose Pub. A drink at James River Brewery. The list goes on and it is within that growing downtown community that the Gallery is now welcoming a particularly fitting new partner in Chartula: Paperie, Pigment & Gifts, founded by Marti Spaulding.
Chartula, which comes from the Latin word for “a little piece of paper,” is the perfect choice for a business that grew from Spaulding’s love of paper, art and the creative process. For the past year and a half, she has created custom cards and other creative goods that have been sold through stores in Virginia, including in Lucketts, Leesburg and Charlottesville. As part of her retirement plans, Spaulding saw an opportunity to turn what had been a creative outlet into a permanent presence in the community.
“Art’s my love,” she said. “I told her [Loebs] it’d be so nice if I could one day have my own brick and mortar shop. This is just so perfect. We just married these two ideas together.”
Find out more about this new partnership in next week’s article.
