BRATTLEBORO — Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts was recently recognized for its cultural contributions to the Monadnock Region and southern Vermont.
Gallery co-owner Petria Mitchell called the gallery's recent receipt of a “Presenting the Arts” award at the eighth annual Ruth & James Ewing Arts Awards “a big honor.”
“We received this award because of how we present the artists' work, how well we do it, and our attention to detail,” she said.
In approximately seven shows per year, Mitchell and her husband, Jim Giddings, the gallery's co-owner, show 30 emerging and established artists from all over the U.S. who work in a variety of abstract and contemporary media, including glass, printmaking, painting, and sculpture.
Since it opened in 2013, the gallery has given the arts “a center of exposure in the heart of downtown Brattleboro,” Giddings noted.
“Our gallery is a place we can bring simple beauty to town,” he said. “And being honored for that sort of reinforces our belief in what we're doing.”
In her nomination of Mitchell and Giddings for the award, printmaker Erika Radich, of Spofford, N.H., wrote: “Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts has been advocating for, presenting, and promoting the talent of regional, national, and global visual artists for almost 10 years. Jim Giddings and Petria Mitchell have an eye for excellence and are very talented artists themselves. They have endured and even flourished during the pandemic. It is inspiring that they have incorporated other art forms to join in creating an 'art building' on Main Street in Brattleboro that houses organizations that offer dance, printmaking, and photography.”
The Ewings, for whom the award was named, co-owned and published the Keene Sentinel for more than 40 years. The newspaper remains independently owned by the Ewing family.