North End Gallery in Leonardtown is marking 40 years in business this September with a month-long anniversary show and a First Friday opening reception on Sept. 4 from 5 to 8 p.m.
The show runs Sept. 1-30, with the gallery open daily starting at 11 a.m. It will feature new work from current members alongside a retrospective display of pieces from the gallery’s past four decades. Gift-card drawings will be held throughout the month, and the Sept. 4 reception will bring together past and present members along with invited guest artists.
The cooperative traces its roots to September 1986, when clay artists Sally Carter and Pat Lewis recruited about 20 fellow local artists to open a gallery built on an equal-ownership model — every member holding an equal say and equal responsibility in running the business. Membership has since grown to a cap of 35 juried artists at any given time, and more than 100 artists have passed through the co-op’s ranks over four decades, drawing from Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.
Today it’s recognized as St. Mary’s County’s longest-running artist cooperative. The gallery, located on Fenwick Street, sits in Leonardtown’s Arts and Entertainment District — the only state-designated arts district in Southern Maryland, a status that supports cultural tourism initiatives in the historic town square — and its First Friday receptions are timed to the town’s monthly downtown event, when shops and galleries stay open late alongside artist appearances.
Founding member Jeanne Norton Hammett, a serigrapher known for her silkscreen prints of Southern Maryland scenes, said the gallery’s community of fellow artists “provided me with a launching pad to grow and become a professional artist.”
Throughout September, the gallery will host a rotating series of art demonstrations by its members: Denise Breitburg on sgraffito painting with underglazes on porcelain (Sept. 5), Yanhui Kuang on Chinese water-and-ink painting on Xuan paper (Sept. 10), Cindy Brennen on encaustic painting with a blowtorch (Sept. 12), Karen Chambers on Gelli printing (Sept. 15), Mimi Little on mixed-media painting (Sept. 26), and Sarah Houde on clay hand-building (Sept. 27). A date for Hammett’s own serigraphy demonstration was still being finalized as of the gallery’s announcement; the full schedule is posted on the gallery’s website.
North End Gallery’s members work across a wide range of media, including pottery, printmaking, textiles, jewelry, painting, photography, stained and fused glass, woodworking, and sculpture in clay, wood and metal. A different member artist staffs the gallery each day, available to talk with visitors about their own work and the co-op’s history. Beyond its monthly exhibitions, the gallery has also partnered with the Town of Leonardtown on free public art classes — covering techniques from oil painting to pottery and mosaics — funded in part by the St. Mary’s County Arts Council. Over its four decades, the gallery has been recognized as one of Southern Maryland’s leading galleries and counts itself among the oldest cooperative galleries in Maryland.
North End Gallery is located in downtown Leonardtown. Hours and the full September demonstration calendar are available on the gallery’s website.
