local artists to display their work here in belmont i was member of the cultural council at that time and we had a history of ours applying for grants to hang their work in the town and there was no real dedicated space for that that happened to coincide with the renovation of the home or building at the same time and we had a large council cultural council at that time and we had a couple of visionaries sitting on the council including jennifer smith in the gallery and the expectations and so on and we have been building upon her early success thank you and does the gallery have a relationship with the belmont art associate yeah very close well yeah i mean a lot of us in the association are also involved with the gallery in various ways so yeah we have some group shows on the bill murray group at the gallery and small works show at the end of the year in december a lot of belmont artists in the belmont art association to dissipate in that secret relationship and who is eligible to exhibit their work and how is that handled it there is a process and people any any artist can submit a proposal for show and that information is on the website and they need to you know write a proposal they need to submit images along with their proposal and then several times a year we the committee those of us who manage the gallery decide on which of these proposals we can move forward with we actually are very full right now we have shows lined up through the end of i think twenty sixteen we try to plan shows out about a year almost a year in advance and with shows inquire this and that will get the wheels turning i'll think about that and you know possibly develop it into a show or if it's an individual maybe will make it into a three person show fall third not consistently it will not in a row but this november the bus and print makers they have by any show and the cape cod print makers who are part of that group they're going to be showing their work in the  yes so how is the gallery funded the gallery is funded by sales of work so there's a group of us or five of us who actually manage the gallery and richard hill and i are co directors and as you mentioned helen morris and cathy lobo are the sort of the board the remaining sort of overseers if you will of the gallery we do have a connection to the you know a remaining connection to the cultural council in time but we all volunteer our time we all have other you know other types of employment or other commitments and so on but we're very passionate about to galleries and what it represents us involved and i think it's a me it's an amazing cultural resource here in belmont i really think it is a jewel it's beautiful space you have been up there i have been up there and i was very impressed with the building and the history of the building  which was quite amazing and going back to what rebecca said about trey and other folks having that vision yes to see what was in and out of tory m c it was a it's a letter to floor so you go a little bit what do you tell originally started as a high school then became a junior high and a middle school and a grade school and now it's town and then town office yeah but the third floor was   and we should mention that you know in keeping with the history of the building it was designed by an uncle of winslow homer the famous artist oh ok so what is that i we're building and it's connected to the home or family so it's i don't think part of the cluster of buildings so it was the entire cluster design don't i don't know but that's i mean related we will say i think we need to point out that the the one thing about the gallery is it is on the third floor of the building so people have to with winslow homer until maybe three or four years ago and we when we realized that connection it added something sort of an extra you know dimension to the gallery knowing that there is sort of this maybe  tenth anniversary of the belmont gallery of art and actually opened in july two thousand and five but because summer is a little bit of a kind of a quiet time in time we decided we wanted to wait until the fall to actually do the big celebration so just yesterday we were putting together some of the art has been dropped off by the artists we have seventy three artists in the tenth anniversary show celebrating the belmont gallery of art in the artist who have participated over the last decade and the show opens september twenty fourth and it's up through october thirtieth and we're having a big gala reception in the communities invited on friday october sixteenth from six to nine pm we're going to have music and whine and delicious food and tons of great art and they'll be a raffle that benefits the gallery and and so on so it's going to be really wonderful even so people can buy the paintings that they slowly al arabiya as it yes absolutely so most of the work i mean and as an artist can speak to this most of the work is for sale there are some artists who might have a piece that's not for sale if there's just some connection they just don't want to part with that and we respect that because sometimes you just can't part with something you me but most of the art is for sale and we do so work you know at almost every show and i just  mention that so that is a way going back to that that is a way that the gallery supports itself there's no time funding the town is generous in giving us the space but there's no time funding for the gallery it is self it is selves through the sale of self supporting and very successful and i i mean here's what i would consider the fact that we're still there ten years after the new established to be you know be considered a success so can you tell tell us about shows that are going to be coming out we've got the big gala with the new paintings in artwork going up and do you have other plans going forward we  have the it could make a car print makers that's opening in early november i believe it's i think it's november fifth that that show opens and that goes until mid december and then we are discussing if we're going to do small works which is  usually the show that takes place in december so people can come up to the gallery do some holiday shopping pieces are priced under two hundred dollars in their usually small in stature you know they're small pieces and people pay and just and just walk away just taken with them and then in january we're doing our first textile art show so we're going to be featuring some some quilts and textile art we thought that would be an interesting show to have in the middle of winter when it's very gray and kind of bleak outside and you come up to the gallery and there's just all of this color and just texture and so on and hopefully feel good and we're just discussing source show after that we're discussing discussing excuse me  it's probably going to be collage art so we're still that's still in sort of the discussion stages right now but that's probably going to be so the second half of february into march right now and again we  have other ideas that the committee discusses there may be an artist really you know i could check the emails today and there might be some amazing proposal that's come in from an artist so we're always discussing you know possibilities and so on but as in and i mentioned we try to have the shows programmed you know sometimes six to eight months in advance oh hey can we talk about past shows absolutely salon one of my favorites it's a very personal one because it's the first show i was in at some point in the gallery and i had just moved to belmont and i was actually still participating in somerville open studios so i had promos i heard about the gallery in belmont i was bringing the promo up to the gallery and i met nan so out of this simple you know gesture of wanting to drop off some postcards i ended up having almost an hour conversation with her she was so wonderful and generous with her time and and told me a lot about the little history of the gallery even though i didn't know you know the details that you've shared today so that show it was something it was called something like from the garden to the from  kitchen to the chimney table yes so i you know then went home and dug out some art that maybe you know some eggplants and i had painted i don't know what i can't remember what i had in the show but i dug up something and i was in my first show in the gallery so that for me that was a tick for it and you know what and just said actually a number of artists have said that the belmont gallery of art has for a number of been the first professional gallery venue they've had their work displayed in and it's actually given them a sense of self confidence about their work once you know i think it's putting something out there that you know the public is going to see and  after you've taken that step in the response has been positive and so on that i think people feel empowered a little bit that ok now i'm going to you know i'm going to pursue this even more and and so on and so forth and so i've heard that from a number of artists and they feel i think a sense of gratitude definitely towards about one gallon of this or that opportunity so i think that the show that and just mention actually is a favorite of a number of people and that was a very eclectic show for me personally i i  think one of my favorite shows was we did a show of children's book art we burrowed right bridge publishing in watertown and it was there a twenty fifth anniversary and i am somebody who really loves children's books and have a keen appreciation for the illustrations and so on and we work very closely with them and an artist's name was lee evans who's in watertown who's illustrated many children's books and we had fifteen notable children's book illustrators have their work in the gallery they came to the gallery to meet you know children and families and we have a book signing and selling and so on in that was one of my favorites and that was actually one of and they could look at the book and then they could walk over and see you know that's the painting that's on page you know seven of this book so yes so that was wonderful and you know and we also we work closely with the library  because they do the when they when they do the one book one belmont project we try and have a show at the gallery that aligns with the theme of the book that they've chosen and we also we didn't interesting show last winter called photo voice which was really kind of an unusual show for us in some ways we worked with mclean hospital's day program that waverly place and we work with their photography students and some of their creative writing students and we had a am on the committee it's like what's rebecca going to five for me but i mean the shows have all been have all been wonderful and i think again we try to do something that's that's new and unique you know as we move forward with the shows i am to four pm and then sunday is a little less than that it's went to four until four pm and occasionally if we think there's a there's going to be a demand you know for extended hours we will sometimes do a friday evening or saturday for a few hours you know around noon time depending on what what what the show was like the children's book show we knew that small children and families we want to see that show so we wanted to give additional hours outside of school hours so we did we were open on saturdays for that show and as you mentioned you know i mean we're we're going to be open friday for the for the big leagues that reception and generally when there's a reception it is open in the evening i mean it is almost always if we do it i need  reception we should also mention the cuba show because that was very that was really interesting to a very timely show because some of the recent change in u s cuban relations that happened it was just this past your april in may the april and may jonathan hansen who's a professor at harvard he's a cuban scholar mean a very learned person it was his photography show and which was all you know photographs from and and then he gave a talk that was one of our most successful talks as well on a standing room only for his talk about so he's he was able to travel to cuba as a scholar writing a book and became more and more interested in the culture in the people and took pictures of his experiences and the surroundings and and he i think he approached us and bowed to us ability to do the show so that is that is a great example right of somebody who you know yeah so so we'll just mention again so the galleries open thursdays fridays and sundays the specific hours will be on the website and again if there are any extended hours all that information is on the website we're very easy to find even though sometimes people have a hard time finding us so we're right behind we're so we're in the home we're building right behind on savings bank just off leonard street so we're just you know we're up there you just take the elevator to the third floor or the stairs and you open that door and it's because we believe in it so much it's why people volunteer their time and expertise and someone to make sure that it keeps going you know i sometimes pinch myself and i'll be walking down to the gallery to do something and and pinch myself thinking god i'm going to the local gallery i want to minute walk from my house who can be that wonderful yeah it's really wonderful is there any additional information that we can share that we haven't already and we want to talk about i just think the main thing is we encourage people to come and visit the gallery i think that's really important and ask we do have you know a number of people who come on a regular basis or reception's are typically you know quite busy and then when pete you know there are some people who they arrive upstairs they say gee i've been walking around for a few minutes i couldn't find it but once they get there they're just so yes something about you know you see are on a website that might intrigue you and i highly encourage people to actually go and see the art in person because it's like night and day there is nothing like seeing live art and you get more about the depth of the texture a little the colors are more true of course because you're seeing the real thing but it's just i think it touches you more deeply absolutely if i live  to mention one thing because there so another very successful show has was a couple of years ago with her portrait show and very very crowded so like you know every week streams of people coming through to see the portraits in that show  was a very large show like the ten year show and something you know a few people said something to me that i really sort of took to heart and listen to when and chatted with them about they felt as though they said they were very intimidated to visit  like that in the volunteers who are there are just like yes you know i mean the artist's work the artwork that's in there is so wonderfully executed and professionally