about
GALLERY X
Our Board 2012
President
Patricia Gomes Creator of the Octologue, an 8-line syllabic form of poetry, award winning poet Patricia Gomes has been published in countless literary journals and anthologies, both in print and electronically. She is the author of four chapbooks and performs her work extensively throughout the New England area.
Ms. Gomes is a member of the Massachusetts State Poetry Society, Cape Cod Literary Press, Bartelby Scrivener Poetry Group, and co-founder of the Saturday Morning Writers' Block, hosting bi-monthly poetry venues in New Bedford, Massachusetts, bringing poets from the Cape, western MA, the South Shore area, Rhode Island and Connecticut to perform in New Bedford.
A 2008 Pushcart Prize nominee and the former editor of Adagio Verse Quarterly, Ms. Gomes was the 2010 recipient of the Dave L. Osgood Poetry Award and is currently the on-line poetry moderator of the iVillage (ivillage.com, a division of NBC) Poets Workshop.
Vice President
Kaity Rupert was born a creative spirit, specializing in design and illustration. She received her BFA in 2007 from Montserrat College of Art and is currently working as a Production Designer here in New Bedford.
Treasurer
Liz LaValley has been a scrimshander for over 30 years, she scribes ivory and bone. Liz exhibits at the Gallery X Arts Cooperative and lectures at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Education: BFA University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Liz is a poet and artist who combines collage, poetry and calligraphy. Won "Best Body of Work" at Philadelphia Millennium Philcon. Member of Bartleby Scrivner Poetry Group since 1994.
Secretary
Lori Bradley is an artist, writer, and educator living in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She exhibits her collages, paintings and ceramics nationally and has a studio at the Hatch Street Studios in New Bedford. Lori has an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and is currently an adjunct professor teaching Graphic Design and Digital Time Arts at Bridgewater State University. She also writes about the arts for local publications.
Located in New Bedford's historic downtown, Gallery X is an artist owned and operated community art center. We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is open to the public free of charge. Gallery X occupies the former Universalist Church at 169 William Street, just blocks from the Whaling Museum, National Whaling Historical Park and the city's blossoming entrepreneurial business district. Our 150-seat facility hosts local and national visual and performing artists, musicians and writers.
Our Mission: Gallery X is a contemporary, cooperative art gallery of visual, performing and literary artist members and volunteers. It promotes cultural outreach through community partnerships, educational programs and monthly exhibits. It acts as an incubator for emerging artists, a venue for established ones and promotes interaction between them. Offering many arts and cultural programs on its own and with other cultural organizations we attempt to expand the audience for arts and culture in greater New Bedford.
The History of Gallery X
First conceived in the late 1980s and Incorporated on March 15, 1990, Gallery X was founded by former students of the Swain School of Design, local artists, and creative minded individuals as an arts cooperative. Gallery X rented a storefront on Spring Street in downtown New Bedford, between the former YWCA and the Zeiterion Theatre (both better known as the Y and the Z), thus inspiring the name Gallery X. At Spring Street, Gallery X was a showplace for artists, playwrights, thespians, musicians, and poets. Also hosted at Spring Street were art exchanges, children's art programs and workshops. In 1995 Gallery X moved to the former 1855 First Universalist Church building at 169 William Street, just half a block up from New Bedford's City Hall and the main branch of New Bedford's Free Public Library, and in 1998 the organization was able to purchase this historic building.
In 1999 Gallery X successfully restored the steeple of the former church building and volunteers helped to paint and restore the windows and building's west side and faŤade. In 2002, through a block grant from the New Bedford Office of Community Development, Gallery X received funding for a wheelchair lift. Volunteers constructed a handicap ramp and a handicapped accessible bathroom. In May, 2003, Gallery X's committed efforts in the restoration and upgrade of 169 William Street were recognized by WHALE at their annual meeting. Gallery X was awarded their honorary Sarah H. Delano award for diligent restoration of the former 1855 First Universalist Church of New Bedford. In 2004 Gallery X received a grant from the Island Foundation to hire their first staff person, an executive director.
