Photo by Jen Johnson

 

Cylene Walker-Willis, new board member, dance; Rigby Summer, board member, Monday@Modella; Mo Wassell, board member, art; Valerie Bloodgood, founder.

We are a non-profit art gallery that thrives on the interaction with the community. When the quarantine hit, we literally had finished one week of a new exhibit, "Revolutions," a bicycle themed exhibit to tie in with the Midsouth bike ride. We have no paid staff so, fortunately, we were not hit economically with not being able to pay employees. However, our student internships abruptly ended and no showcasing of talent.  One of our board members was able to produce a virtual visit of that exhibit which is on our Modella website. Income from sale of artwork and renting the gallery space helps with Modella's rent and that completely ended. Showcasing local musicians as part of our Final Fridays also ended live. We did have a March virtual Final Friday. And our monthly Monday@Modella music highlights, poetry series and dance went on hiatus as well. Two art exhibits were cancelled and one was delayed. At first, we brake pedaled everything and we are now coming back to the merry go round, board members using their creative juices and talents to help reevaluate how Modella can draw the community back in. Stay tuned!