For Christina Heintzelman-Jones, the title of art gallery owner is one that extends beyond the trappings of a small business. To be sure, when the Harrisburg woman opened Gallery Blu on North Third Street last March, the primary purpose was to develop a clientele. However, there continues to be more to Jones’ endeavor.
Harrisburg’s Midtown section, the neighborhood in which her enterprise is located, is fertile ground for community-based action. She and neighbor Jim Woland, retired Theatre Program Director for the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, pondered ways to be of assistance to some of its residents.
Woland had experience in meeting local needs. His efforts were seminal in the successful fundraiser dubbed 62 Artists Do Lunch, in which artists volunteered to paint lunch buckets that were subsequently auctioned. “We raised more than $6,000,” says Woland. “Half of it went to the Salvation Army, and half to Loaves of Love.”
“One of my favorite things about living in Midtown is all the creative people,” says Woland. “Right up the street from me is a terrific photographer, and a bass player. In the same building is a guy who wrote the definitive book on Harrisburg architecture and architects. A working artist lives over on Herr Street, and another up in Capitol Heights.”
“Several years ago, those of us involved with Friends of Midtown decided to ‘brand’ Midtown as an arts-friendly area,” continues Woland. “Now we have the Stage on Herr, Midtown Scholar and Gallery Blu. It seems some people took us seriously,” he chortles. “So the area has really become artist friendly.”
“It became apparent to me that the Gallery could do so much more for this part of the city,” adds Jones. So the auction idea was resurrected, and it was decided to hold one at Gallery Blu. “About that time, I met Tomi Peterson, Assistant to the Director of Philanthropy at the Salvation Army’s Green Street Community Center,” she explains. “Tomi happily embraced my idea to make the Salvation Army the beneficiary. Our goal is to raise $10,000.”
Titled Sweet Salvation, 100 for $100, the silent auction will be held at the Gallery, 1633 North Third Street, on Friday, February 12, starting at 7 p.m. A multitude of pieces from many of the region’s best-known and commended artists will be available for bidding, with the minimum for each starting at $100. Those unable to attend the opening will have an additional two weeks to submit bids.
A sample list of participating artists includes Earl Blust, Ophelia Chambliss, Andrew Guth, Li Hidley, Bruce Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Joanne Landis, Don Lenker, Mary Ludeen, Robert Stadnycki, Clifford Tooker and Steve Wetzel. Any reader familiar with those names will appreciate the breadth of mediums and styles to be exhibited and offered.
Several of the above have been profiled in this column. Chambliss (Oct. '06 issue) is an instructor at York College whose paintings are cubist/precisionist in appearance. Guth (May '06, Jan. '07) blends expressionist and pop elements in layered mixed media compositions. He and partner Tara Chickey managed the Mantis Collective gallery in Harrisburg, and continue to occasionally host art-related events. Jeff Johnson (Jan. '07), co-owner of Albert Michaels Conservation Inc., works in painting and printmaking, with particular interest in the local landscape. A former New York fashion illustrator, Landis (Apr. '06) is known for her colorful and imaginative expressionist paintings. And Tooker (Aug. '08) is a retired professional nature and travel stock photographer.
Such an event affirms the notion, promoted lately in the academic realm, that the visual arts are more than a peripheral activity limited to decorative purposes. “Artists are the most generous people that I know,” says Jones. “I’ve had no trouble obtaining pieces for the auction.” And now the Salvation Army and the recipients of its good works will be the beneficiaries. As the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landsman, declares, “Art works!”
The Harrisburg Capital City Region of the Salvation Army maintains two locations. Its handsome city Community Center, constructed in 1954, occupies the corner of Cumberland and Green Streets. Sunday school and an integrated morning worship service highlight the weekend schedule. The Edgemont facility, at 2328 Locust Lane in Susquehanna Township, offers a similar program.
But, as is the Army’s primary objective since British Methodist preacher William Booth founded the denomination in 1878, it is the ministry’s outreach during the balance of the week that shapes its public identity. A few of the services to the community include clothing and food assistance, after-school enrichment and learning, life skills classes for juveniles, youth arts and crafts, holiday food baskets, daily breakfasts, nutrition education, disaster response and prescription assistance.
“Our soup kitchen is probably the most visible program that we administer,” says Captain Tim Lavenbein. “We serve about 80 to 100 people each day, and the number continues to increase.” Indeed, the growing breakfast line outside the Army’s Community Center caught Jim Woland’s attention as he biked to work each morning, and eventually contributed to the concept of the Gallery Blu auction. Lavenbein has been in Harrisburg for only two years, and in that time, the need for services has grown by 85 percent.
This is not Gallery Blu’s initial foray into such activity. Last December, it hosted a benefit show for the Consolidated Cathedral School of Harrisburg, featuring both professional art and that of the school’s students. Jones would like to conduct three yearly fundraisers for the Midtown community. They may not all go the art auction route. “There’s a need to keep it fresh,” says Woland. HBG
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