It imitates us.
Expresses, intrigues, challenges, inspires. We imitate it.
Clever. Awesome. Beautiful.
Visual art!
But how many of us – other than artists, enthusiasts and genuine collectors – truly appreciate fine visual art?
Not enough – if you ask sculptor Robert Powell, founder and executive director of Portfolio Gallery in Grand Center.
But Powell has been able to artfully keep the doors his gallery open all the way to a 20-year anniversary.
Portfolio Gallery will celebrate that milestone with a gala and exhibit opening: The Art of the Collectors of Fine Art Exhibit.
The celebration and opening is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7 at Portfolio Gallery, 3514 Delmar Blvd.
Powell hopes his exhibit of personal art collections of others will breed an appreciation for fine, original visual art.
“I thought I’d try to increase the visibility and get some of the people I know who have art to invite their friends and talk art,” Powell said.
“Art is important and we want to put art in the lives of everyone,” the laidback, but prolific and impassioned Powell said.
Portfolio Gallery is the longest-running, free-standing African American art gallery in St. Louis. That tidbit paints a smile on Powell’s face in his quiet time, but if you know Powell, his quiet time usually involves work.
“You have to love what you do and get up and do it every day,” Powell says. An award-winning sculptor and gallery owner, Powell get his share of commissions, but many of his days are spent teaching art classes and appreciation for visual art.
Portfolio Gallery has educational programs with St. Louis Public Schools, Christian Activity Center in East St. Louis and St. John the Baptist Middle School. The gallery recently completed a program at the Medium Security Institution, otherwise known as the Workhouse.
Teaching and cultivating future artists into entrepreneurs is high on Powell’s drawing board.
“I wish I could find artisans who are good and thought they were good enough to attract students, commissions and sales,” Powell said.
Meanwhile, he’s now launching a campaign to fund an educational facility that would be attached to Portfolio Gallery.
The educational facility is projected at $2 million.
The gallery has secured a match grant challenge from the St. Louis Office for Mental Retardation and/or Developmental Disability Resources. If Portfolio Gallery raises $50,000 the agency will match it, giving the project $100,000.
One of Powell’s campaign strategies is to raise $1,000 each from 2,000 people.
One down and 1999 people to go: Powell got a call from a donor on Tuesday saying that instead of giving a $1,000 to another organization he had in mind, the gentleman decided to contribute to Powell’s campaign.
“God has been on my side, I feel good, but I want to be around for thousands of years like any other cultural arts institution,” Powell said.
Reaching milestones and winning awards means he must be doing something right, but Powell says, “What do the awards mean if we don’t have someone supporting black cultural institutions?”
For more information on the 20th anniversary celebration and opening or to donate, call (314) 533-3323.
