This Friday is party time for a great gallery
Legendary Chattanooga area art institution Gannon Art Center is celebrating its 50th Anniversary with a party this Friday at 5:30 p.m. The small family business has been in operation since 1970, and has served more than three generations of customers—some who came in as grandchildren and are now getting their art framed at the custom frame shop.
Gannon Art Center wouldn’t exist without Dorothy S. Gannon. Among other things, this prolific artist started the In-Town Gallery with a few other artists—they had their first show at the Read House in the early ‘70s.
She worked for the Little Art Shop on Frazier, and eventually for their second location in Brainerd. Her husband Wendell and their son Eddie also worked with her at the shop. When the Littles downsized, they sold the Brainerd art store to the Gannons.
Ownership of the shop passed down to Eddie Gannon, who tells us, “Looking at 50 years behind us, I don’t see anything slowing down at Gannon Arts. It is going full steam ahead. My daughter lives and works in Spain, she comes home for the summer and runs the business, along with Lisa Norris.”
A well-established artist, Lisa Norris has been working for Gannon on and off since she was a teenager. Her time there benefited her when she was going to art school in New York—it got her better jobs, since her experience enabled her to work in custom frame shops and galleries to help fund her studies. When she came home for summer, she worked at the frame shop.
As gallery director, she curates and installs all the work in the gallery and does all the framing and fitting…and she is also in charge when Eddie goes on vacation.
The gallery is always considering new work from local artists—they encourage artists to bring a few pieces by to see if their work might fit in with the collection. They also sell a basic array of art supplies—oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints, pens and pencils, paper, canvas, and cradled board.
They also put together shadow boxes, which are hanging display cases custom built to showcase items of sentimental value, memorabilia, collectibles, and small art.
They are some of the best in the region to specialize in the restoration of old oil paintings. This includes relining canvas, patching tears, repainting missing areas of paint, and cleaning and removing dust, mold, and yellowed varnish on canvas. A consummate restorer, Lisa can effectively restore a damaged painting to a brand-new state without decreasing the value of the work.
She tells us, “Somebody ripped a painting up at Covenant College, a piece depicting Jesus hanging naked on the cross—apparently they were offended by his nudity, and ripped the painting in three places.”
After Norris put it back together, it was impossible to tell that it had ever been ripped. She can also repair and touch up damaged black and white or color photographs, and/or make quality reproductions.
The Gannon team can build any size stretched canvas or linen, with either blank material or an unstretched painting that someone brings in. This is a vital service for many collectors who purchase art online or through the mail, as many pieces are shipped rolled up in a tube.
They build custom mirrors of any shape or size, with sheer or beveled edges, and make fine art prints on canvas or photographic paper from a digital image. They also do installations of any kind of art in any space, residential, commercial, or industrial.
They also have collected a variety of convex glass that fits round or oval frames, as well as antique wavy, bubbly, and colored vintage glass.
After decades of running this incredibly multi-faceted business, Eddie says “I’m getting to an age where I might consider some time off. I would eventually like to see my daughter and Lisa come together and form a partnership, and keep Gannon Art Center alive to take care of the art framing needs of the community.”