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May Issue 2008
Somerhill Gallery in Chapel Hill, NC,
Moves to Durham, NC
On the eve of Somerhill Gallery's 36th Anniversary, we are proudly announcing the location of our new gallery.
Somerhill Gallery will be moving its current location at Eastgate Shopping Center in Chapel Hill, NC, to the Venable Center in Durham, NC. The address, 305 South Roxboro Street, is in the heart of the exciting new frontier of Durham as established in recent years by the presence of the Durham Bulls, the American Tobacco complex of a million square feet and the architecturally significant new Durham Performing Arts Center, scheduled for early opening on this November.
Faced with an unexpected "termination of tenancy" that Somerhill Gallery received Feb. 12, 2008, Director Joseph Rowand sprung into action to explore its potential opportunities, made complex by short notice.
First established on the 15-501 Boulevard between Durham and Chapel Hill, the Gallery has resided for the last 19 years at Eastgate Shopping Center. Feeling a gravitational and emotional pull to the town of Chapel Hill that has been the support center of the gallery, and after a long exhaustive search and extensive review process of available spaces in Chapel Hill, there simply was no space available that had the 9,000 square footage necessary, with the ceiling height necessary or with the needed amenities for a gallery presence, as well as one with great parking.
To the rescue was Andy Rothschild of Durham Scientific Properties, a friend of Rowand's who said he "might be able to help".
Rowand visited the options of other towns nearby and at the generous invitations of many Durham real estate interests, it became clear to Rowand that this was the best place to begin the new chapter in the life of Somerhill Gallery.
With a long history of working with architect Phil Szostak who designed Somerhill's current Gallery as well as Rowand's personal home, Szostak and Rowand set out on a concentrated design consultation that included a whirlwind trip to New York City, for an architectural survey of what existed in the larger world of art galleries. The Szostak Design Inc. team has been in full throttle with design development for a fabulous gallery in a concentrated period of time.
Construction has begun with heroic crews making the newest incarnation of Somerhill live up to and surpass its former presence. And as it happens, it will. The new Somerhill Gallery boasts 9,600 square feet on one floor with over 40 skylights. Created from a tobacco shipping and receiving warehouse with fourteen foot ceilings, it is being fitted out into a series of unfolding gallery spaces, with a new white oak sprawl of floor leading the visitor into an adventure that will include a glass gallery, an expanded photography gallery, its main gallery salon space featuring a fireplace and the apparition of an oasis, a newly created courtyard sculpture gallery open to the sky replete with water feature and palm trees.
It is an exciting continuation, stunningly appropriate to Somerhill's architectural history, and its continued aesthetic leadership to be an important architectural exhibition gallery.
Director Rowand commented, "I am grateful to all the many people of many communities who tried to help us find a new home. We are standing, no we're running, to bring forward our history with our artists as well as our collectors. The community support has been inspiring as well as strengthening in helping us to rise to the occasion and maximize our potential to the new energy of Durham. A town with a historic past and a newly brilliant future. I am proud to be a part of its growth".
For further information check our NC Commercial
Gallery listings, call the gallery at 919/968-8868 or visit (www.somerhill.com).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2008 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.