Bryan Fine Art Gallery Opens in Stowe 

click to enlarge

• Pamela Polston ©️ Seven Days
• Bryan Fine Art Gallery in Stowe

Dozens of visitors mingled genially at the grand opening of Bryan Fine Art Gallery in Stowe on Saturday, welcomed with abundant food and drink, live music by guitarist George Petit, and, of course, very fine art. Sunshine streamed into the gallery, too, animating the bonhomie. For executive director Stephen Gothard and gallery manager Garrison French, the glorious weather was — just maybe — a good omen. Opening a new art gallery is not for the faint of heart.

Stowe has good reason to celebrate this one: Several other art venues have disappeared from the village in recent years, including Green Mountain Fine Art Gallery in 2019. Its former 1,300-square-foot quarters on South Main Street now belong to the Bryan.

The enterprise is an extension of the renowned Bryan Memorial Gallery in Jeffersonville, which painter Alden Bryan (1913-2001) established in 1984 in honor of his wife and fellow artist, Mary Bryan (1906-1978). The board had not been looking for a second location, according to Gothard, but when the opportunity presented itself, "This happened pretty rapidly," he said. After hearing that nearby Robert Paul Galleries was for sale, "We thought, Now's the time for us to open a location in Stowe."

click to enlarge

• Pamela Polston ©️ Seven Days
• Bryan Fine Art Gallery in Stowe

The goal was not simply to restore an outlet for traditional artwork in the village. "The gallery in Jeffersonville was built as a way to preserve and continue the legacy of artists coming to [paint in] northern Vermont for 100 years," Gothard said. "But Jeffersonville is also a quiet community, especially during COVID. That was a deterrent to people coming to enjoy the gallery."

In other words, tourist-heavy Stowe is a boost for the Bryan and the artists it represents. "Now we have a presence on both sides of the mountain," Gothard said, referring to the snow-sports mecca of Mount Mansfield.

In addition to its permanent holdings of paintings by Alden and Mary Bryan, the Jeffersonville gallery presents predominantly plein air landscape paintings by more than 200 artists in rotating exhibitions throughout the year. The Stowe venue will feature essentially the same mix, at least for now.

click to enlarge

• Pamela Polston ©️ Seven Days
• Garrison French (left) and Stephen Gothard

"Whenever we switch over an exhibit [in Jeffersonville], we'll bring a selection of those works to Stowe," Gothard said. But he's open to incorporating more contemporary and abstract work in time. "This is definitely going to be an evolution," he mused.

Asked to speculate on what the founder would have thought about his gallery's expansion, Gothard did not hesitate.

"Alden and Mary were definitely entrepreneurs — they had the farm; they brought pasteurized milk to the area; they had a restaurant [and] inn; they built a tennis association, which is now a community center, in Jeffersonville," he said. "They also had a restaurant in Rockport [Mass.]. So, I think this extension is right in line with his thinking as a businessman, and to expand the artistic legacy."

Indeed, the tagline on the Bryan's website seems to anticipate this very thing: "Building on one legacy, creating another."