This month we celebrate Live Culture's 3rd Birthday by having discussions with two artists involved with the creation of NEW exhibition spaces. As we have talked about in previous episodes, traditionally modeled galleries are closing at rapid rates everywhere including New York, London and Los Angeles, due to financial stresses caused by art fair costs and rising real estate prices. This has led artists to activate new models to create and maintain real exhibition spaces so coveted by visual artists. For this show, we look at the role of the small gallery for Connecticut’s many artists, and the ways in which our state can sustain and champion it’s rich art community.

This month we talk with artist Rita Valley about her exhibit at the new Capsule Gallery in the East Village in New York, currently featuring her show Complicity Loves Company, which runs through March 10th. Capsule Gallery is a new project in partnership with Litchfield County Auctions. We will discuss with Rita her art and exhibit, the mechanics of the gallery and what advantages having a new space in the East Village offers a Connecticut-based Auction House.

We then talk with Artist and Gallerist Melanie Carr about her new exhibition space in Essex Connecticut. Melanie Carr Gallery is a project space dedicated to the practice, exhibition, and sale of contemporary art. Melanie Carr Gallery is focused on promoting the importance of contemporary art and examining its impact on society, while providing it. We will talk with Melanie about how opening the space has affected her own practice, what impact the gallery has had so far and the role she sees for small brick-and-mortar galleries in Connecticut.

About the birthdays guests:
Rita Valley has exhibited previous work at Artspace (New Haven), Odetta Gallery (Brooklyn) and a solo artist show at Real Art Ways RAW (Hartford). She has received two State of Connecticut Individual Artist Grants and her art is held in numerous public, private, and university collections. She is a graduate of Bennington College in Vermont, and currently resides in Southbury, Connecticut.

http://www.ritavalley.net/index.html
https://capsulefineart.com/

Melanie Carr is a Connecticut based artist who received her MFA from the College of Art and Design at Lesley University. Carr began her studies in visual art after serving in the United States Navy as an Operations Specialist in Pearl Harbor, HI. Carr spent over 10 years at the New Britain Museum of American Art, as Curator of New Media. Carr’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Soapbox Gallery, NY, Stockman Gallery, New Britain, CT, City Arts on Pearl, Hartford, CT, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT, and Pegasus Gallery, Middletown, CT. Carr has work in the collections at the New Britain Museum of American Art, The Loomis Chaffee School, and the Boston Public Library, as well as many private collections.

http://www.melaniecarr.com/
https://www.melaniecarrgallery.com/

This show features music by:

Errol Garner, Blondie and Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.....