Help us celebrate 30 years of Gadsden Arts! Share your favorite Gadsden Arts memories and we’ll include them in our “30 Years of Gadsden Arts” blog. Your stories will also be the program at our special 30th Birthday Dinner on Thursday, June 27 (more details to come).
Share your favorite memories by commenting below or via e-mail to grace@gadsdenarts.org!
Hazel Blumberg-McKee
We’ve been coming to Gadsden Arts ever since we moved here, when it was in a deconsecrated church :-). Jim and I love art museums, and yours is so special.
Warmly,
Hazel Blumberg-McKee
Antonio
Art in Gadsden 2020
It was a tough time for us all, but Grace and crew made it better for us all via Zoom! Thanks for bringing a little light in the darkness that was Covid!
Grace Robinson, Executive Director
I remember the first time we traveled our permanent collection. It’s important for collecting museums to share their art with others, so this was such a great way to get it seen by a different audience. Our collection of Southern Vernacular Art was the lead exhibition at the Gibbes Museum in Charleston. Angie and I went with Mark and Patsy to see it there in person. It was great to meet the gracious staff at the Gibbes, and amazing to see our art in their beautiful space, in the heart of Charleston‘s thriving arts district.
Fernanda Peña, Development Intern
A favorite memory of mine from Gadsden Arts is when I worked in the ArtZone. I love kids, and being able to help them explore their creativity is so fun and so special. Especially in a community where the arts are not always accessible to children, the ArtZone serves as a wonderful outlet for children in the Big Bend region.
Jimmy Nicholson
My favorite memory is when Patsy Bates asked me to consider becoming a volunteer for Gadsden Arts. Saying yes was one of my most important post retirement decisions.
Carlene Prince
How I met my husband.
I retired from teaching in Miami on a Friday and moved to Quincy on that next Monday in June of ‘06. I had been a widow since ‘01. I began volunteering at the Art Center in ‘07. Friends wanted to fix me up with someone but I told them to send them into the Art Center and then go from there.
That Friday – August 12, 2011, a bit truck pulled up and a cute, older gentleman got out. I ended up showing him around, then we went to the coffee shop next door. Then he asked me out for the next Monday. A few hours later, after I had put dinner in the oven, he called and I asked him to come over. He never left.
Grace Robinson, Executive Director
This is not a specific memory but many memories stitched together… my favorite experience is seeing children come into Gadsden Arts. Children squeal with delight when they first walk into the ArtZone … as soon as they get their hands on the materials they start to create. School groups come into the lobby, and children’s eyes grow big as they look at the art, whispering to each other and pointing things out. They love to explore. In the time that I’ve been here, we have former children bringing their own children to the ArtZone, former campers enrolling their own kids in camp. That is special for me :).
Anonymous
I was 12 when I first visited Gadsden Arts on a school field trip. I remember begging my mom to bring me back ever so often. This place is a part of my childhood and has inspired me to become a graphic designer! Thank you Gadsden Arts for being here for our community!
Anonymous
Last years Artists Studios tours and being able to meet Mark Georgiades!
Betsy Tabac
We discovered the Gadsden art Center around the early 2000s. We visited infrequently but I was so impressed that every time we did visit, something new and wonderful was happening at the Center. Art Zone was new and a great idea. The museum shop was updated and improved. Even entering the museum was improved by the simple addition of the short guide lines at the front door turning people toward the desk and easy clarification as to the need to charge an admission fee.
It seems that every year brings new people associated with the museum so that now there are many committees, volunteers, donors, new programs – I have a hard time keeping up with the all-good changes. It is so gratifying to see a community rally around a fabulous community resource that serves all members of the community.
Keep up the good work.
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