SHOWCASING VERMONT’S ART TOWN
While singled out by Style Magazine as one of the nation’s top art towns, and Smithsonian Magazine as one of the best small towns to live in for the quality and number of its arts organizations and venues, Brattleboro has never had a gallery like Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts. That is, a large commercial gallery with plenty of wall and floor space to show the kind of large-scale work favored by so many artists today.
Owners Petria Mitchell and Jim Giddings have been important mainstays of the Brattleboro art scene for years. Both painters, they were members of the Windham Art Gallery, a much loved co-operative. Giddings and Mitchell both have been intrinsic to the running of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center — Giddings working on installations and lighting and Mitchell chairing exhibitions and doing some curating along the way, something she will be doing much more of now.
“It provides the opportunity to bring artist and collector together,” Mitchell said, explaining her love of curating. “Connecting people that are passionate about sharing the mystery of creativity is the reward … And if we can help artists to be sustainable while pursuing their creative lives, we would have achieved part of our mission.”
Arlene Distler