Arts Day At The Legislature

January 31, 2011 was a day set aside for the arts at the West Virginia capital. Each year the West Virginia Division of Culture and History has a day where the arts and artist are welcomed into the Capital rotunda to interact with the state legislators. The Renaissance Art Gallery had its first booth this year. The booth was manned by Bruce Bowersock and myself, Susan Tschantz. We arrived early, found our designated table and set up our display to highlight what makes the Renaissance Art Gallery unique in art galleries and art groups.



It gave us a chance to meet other artists and arts groups from around the state, talk to members of the Department of Culture and History and generally schmooz. Bruce is very shy but when he arrived to find the place filled with artists, he said he became very comfortable.

Bruce Bowersock talks to other attendees

We also got a chance to enjoy those in the performing arts who entertained us. And there were a lot of them! From dance to jazz, classical and folk.



We got to think about how we can all interact and support each other. For example, we met a small group from South Charleston who promote and help vocal artists from around the state record their own CDs. Why not feature these artist at our openings, when we generally play music in the background? It would be possible to find an appropriate local artist or artists to provide such music. We also got a chance to talk to several groups that were only names before about participation in our upcoming Spring Fine Arts Exhibition, “Parks & Recreation”. They were able to actually see who and what we are, and thus they feel more comfortable sending us their work.