Bryan Memorial Gallery
Bryan Memorial Gallery is a non-profit arts and education center in Jeffersonville, VT,[1] focused on the preservation and continuation of the New England tradition of landscape painting. Founded in 1984 by the artist Alden Bryan in memory of his wife, his fellow artist Mary Taylor Bryan, the Gallery was originally known as Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery. Upon Alden Bryan's death in 2001, the Gallery was renamed Bryan Memorial Gallery. Since its founding, the Gallery has offered an annual schedule of exhibitions and programs, uninterrupted, featuring the works of both established and emerging landscape artists.
History
New Mexico-born Mary Taylor Bryan (1907 – 1978)[2] and Missouri-born Alden Bryan (1913 – 2001)[3] arrived in Jeffersonville, VT in the winter of 1939, on a painting excursion led by Charles Curtis Allen (1886-1950) from the Rockport Art Association in Rockport, MA.[4] This workshop continued a tradition among New England painters, journeying to Vermont in every season to paint “en plein air” its sweeping vistas and unspoiled terrain[5]. Mary Bryan had been an artist since childhood, originally excelling in sculpture,[6] while Harvard-educated Alden Bryan was relatively new to oil painting. His attraction to painting was ignited by his learning of the Cape Ann (MA) Art Colony.
For the Bryans this visit was pivotal in their lives. Within a year they had made Jeffersonville their permanent residence. Both Bryans shifted the major focus of their endeavors to painting, becoming focused in their practice, and both were quite prolific. Mary excelled in watercolor, and Alden in oil painting.[7]American Art Review, Vol. XXVI, No.3 2014[8] Mary was known to be at her easel all day while Alden had many activities including the dairy farm on which they lived, two restaurants on Main Street in Jeffersonville,[9] a bakery which delivered goods throughout Vermont, and several building projects including the base lodge at Smugglers Notch Resort. They maintained a gallery and a restaurant in Gloucester, MA during the summers, and even when traveling, they produced paintings at their destinations, many of which record bygone cultures. [10]
Mary Bryan died of cancer in 1978. In 1984 he designed and built Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery as a tribute to his late wife, with the specified intention of providing a show place for the many artists who came annually to paint in Jeffersonville, just as he and Mary had done 40 years prior[11]. He engineered a hanging system for the gallery which streamlined the installation and removal of artwork. Interior walls were hung from channels for easy re-configuration of the Gallery space, and a central skylight ran the length of the ceiling.
Open continually since 1984, and enlarged in 1991, the Gallery's mission highlights contemporary and historic landscape painting with particular focus on practice in Vermont and New England.[12]
At Alden Bryan's death the gallery, including all the Bryans’ paintings, was bequeathed to its foundation.
Historic Timeline
- 1939 The Bryans attend plein air painting workshop in Jeffersonville, VT
- 1941 Alden and Mary Bryan settle in Jeffersonville, VT
- 1978 Death of Mary Bryan (1907-1978)
- 1984 Mary Bryan Memorial Gallery opens its first exhibition.
- 1991 Second wing is added to the building, doubling its exhibition space
- 2001 Death of Alden Bryan (1913-2001)
Present day activities
Bryan Memorial Gallery has operated continually since its founding. It maintains a ten-month-a-year program of ten to twelve exhibitions and related educational programs: workshops, demonstrations, artist roundtables, lectures, concerts, and excursions.
The primary focus of its exhibitions and education is landscape painting with a particular concentration on painting in New England. In any given year, works by over two hundred artists are featured. Of note are works by the many artists who travel to Jeffersonville to paint throughout the year, and whose works are often included in subsequent exhibits.
The Gallery's educational events are designed primarily to provide the opportunity to expand the skills of both novice and experienced artists, offering encouragement along the way. As it was with the Bryans, the camaraderie with other artists is offered to fuel creative impetus and appreciation.
Exhibition content and style
Each of the eleven exhibitions mounted annually by Bryan Memorial Gallery follows criteria established a year in advance with published specifications. Each exhibition provides a vehicle for exploring a particular visual concept that can range from historical dimensions, such as Then and Now (2019) in which contemporary paintings were installed next to master works painted in the same location many years prior[13], to landscapes of the imagination such as Fantastical Landscapes[14]
Among its exhibitions, The Legacy Collection is a year-long installation of paintings by artists whose work found favor with the Gallery's patrons the year prior.[15]
Awards
At its annual flagship exhibition, Land and Light and Water and Air[16], Bryan Gallery observes its roots in classic New England landscape painting, and presents prizes, juried by an independent juror, for Best of Show, Second and Third Places and Honorable Mentions. The Alden Bryan Medal is presented to the Best of Show, and the Charles Movalli Medal is presented for Excellence in Painting.
References
- ↑ "NPGallery Search Results". npgallery.nps.gov.
- ↑ https://familysearch.org/en/L22D-QF6/frederick-elliot-lewis-ii-1884-1963
- ↑ "FamilySearch: Sign In".
- ↑ Gow, Mary. "Vermont's Landscape Painting Mecca". Times Argus. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ Bigelow, Jasmine. "Destination Cape Ann". www.visionsofvermont.com. Art New England. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ "Masters of Vermont: Five Women Artists; essay by Mickey Myers". www.tfaoi.com.
- ↑ Polston, Pamela. "In the Studio with Mary Bryan". SevenDays.com. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ Myers, Micaela (June 1, 2014). [amartrev.com "Mary and Alden Bryan"] Check
|url=value (help). American Art Review. XXVI: 92–103. - ↑ Calta, Marialisa (November 15, 1989). "AT THE NATION'S TABLE; Jeffersonville, Vt" – via NYTimes.com.
- ↑ Swink, Sylvan Steele (1958). Cape Ann Profile. Utica, NY: Swink. Search this book on
- ↑ Myers, Mickey. "Travels with Alden" (PDF). www.smuggs.com. Explore Smuggs Magazine. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ Gruhler (curator), Paul (2008). The Art of Vermont. Montpelier, VT: Vermont Arts Council. Search this book on
- ↑ "Then and Now". www.bryangallery.org. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ "Fantastical Landscapes". www.bryangallery.org. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ↑ https://www.bryangallery.org/exhibitdetail.php?gallery=1042
- ↑ "Land and Light and Water and Air". www.bryangallery.org. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
External links
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