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Sage Tanguay  00:08

The Second Street Gallery is currently showing two complimentary exhibitions. For Arts This Week, we spoke with some of the curators and artists involved in both of the shows.

Kristen Chiacchia  00:18

I’m Kristen Chiacchia. I’m the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Second Street Gallery.

Benita Mayo  00:23

Hi, I’m Benita Mayo. I’m one of the founding members of the Charlottesville Black Arts Collective which is hosting the show at Second Street

Ézé Amos  00:31

And my name is Ézé. I’m a photographer here in town.

Kristen Chiacchia  00:34

There are two exhibitions. So at Second Street Gallery, we have two gallery spaces, a main gallery space where the Charlottesville Black Arts Collective Home show is on view, and then we have a smaller adjacent gallery where the Porch Portraits is on view.

Sage Tanguay  00:50

Could you tell me more about the HOME Show?

Benita Mayo  00:53

So Charlottesville Black Arts Collective, we’ve been together now for about four years, and with each one of our shows, we’ve tried to incorporate some aspect of the Black culture. So when we were putting our heads together for this show, we were thinking about what all that’s happening in the world, but then we’re also thinking about what it feels like to be home. Basically, we wanted the artists to interpret home as a physical space or cultural identity or an emotional state, just however that they felt home felt to them. There’s photography, there’s painting, there’s fiber works, there’s performance, there’s drawing and there’s multimedia as well.

Sage Tanguay  01:42

The Charlottesville Porch Portraits were taken during the first year of the pandemic. What was the inspiration behind showing them now?

Eze Amos  01:48

I think the whole idea of showing this, this project, was born out of the you know, the need for us to go and revisit what’s happened five years ago, which we are all part of, when we all were scared of other humans. It was a crazy time, and then looking back at that five years later, and seeing how we have evolved as a community, and how we you know, how we get along now, how it is no longer taboo to be sitting next to someone. So really, it’s a community conversation, so to say.

Kristen Chiacchia  02:24

I always try to place shows next to one another that are having some sort of conversation, that they’re not necessarily matchy-matchy, but they are. There is some sort of dialog so that you can, you know, come to the gallery and see both shows, and really, you know, take something larger away from it.

Sage Tanguay  02:44

These shows have been up for a few weeks. What has the response been so far?

Benita Mayo  02:48

For HOME, the response has been amazing! We really wanted to create that home-feeling. As a viewer, when you walk in, you’ll walk into the foyer, and then you’ll see the living room, and then as you walk back, you’ll walk into the kitchen, and you’ll pass the office. And we were very strategic in how we organized the art around that.

Kristen Chiacchia  03:12

It’s just been really fun watching everyone come in. Oh, I know this person. Oh, there I am. I know that person. And also seeing the change some of these kids, they were, you know, really little or not even born, and just watching the families, how they’ve evolved over the time, and seeing everyone’s just been really excited coming into the show and and finding everything. There’s a lot of joy to it. But there’s also, you know, I’ve seen people come into the show, and, you know, they’ve gotten really emotional because this was a really, a really difficult time, and to see, you know, how we’ve evolved as a community and as individuals, it’s really, it’s really interesting, and I don’t think everyone has really, necessarily had time to process all of that. And this is sort of bringing back all of those all of those emotions and everything.

Eze Amos  04:03

Those photos have been on Instagram all these years, but to see them right in your faces in a different space where there are other families interacting with those photos at the same time as you’re interacting with the photos, and just like like Kristen said, watching families react to them. Now, this is not all joy- “yay, we made it!” There were a lot of people who are no longer with us. A lot of families who that were together when we took those photos, and they’re like separated. There’s there was a lot of emotions. And for me, this was not designed for people to come cry, but yes, keep those tears coming, you know? Because I was like, yes, they are interacting with this, you know, the way I pictured it would be. It’s wonderful, yeah.

Kristen Chiacchia  04:54

So come by and see the shows! We’re open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 11am to 5pm; And Saturdays, from 10am to 4pm.

Sage Tanguay  05:02

Both shows will be up at the Second Street Gallery until May 23rd you can find more information at https://www.secondstreetgallery.org/

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Arts This Week is supported by the UVA Arts Council and Piedmont Virginia Community College. PVCC Arts presents a rich array of dance, music, theater and visual arts programming. Learn more at pvcc.edu

Tags: art, Charlottesville Porch Portraits, Community art, Home, Second Street Gallery