The J.J. Newberry store on Main Street in Saugerties looked almost abandoned a bit more than a week ago. Now it is a vibrant art gallery, with 30 local Hudson Valley artisan vendors including fine jewelry, antiques, collectibles, handmade clothing, art, pottery and more. The Market held its grand opening on Saturday, October 15 and opened a retrospective painting exhibit the following day.
The open space vintage brick building with 14-feet-high original tin ceilings was home to the five and dime general store called J.J. Newberry Co. which closed in the 1990’s. Since then it has gone through several iterations. “Getting the building shipshape was a three-year project,” said gallery owner Jennifer Hicks. “I bought the building in 2017 and it took that long to do the renovations.” It had to be fully renovated — the roof, the wiring, the windows, the bathrooms. Hicks worked with architect Scott Dutton on the renovations.
Saturday’s event included a ribbon cutting with Mayor Bill Murphy. It was sponsored by Sawyer Motors, Saugerties Chamber of Commerce, Town & Country Liquors, Newberry Artisan Market and the Jane Street Art Center.
The exhibit reception was for Richard M. Gamache, who died August 29. “Richard was a Saugerties resident for a really long time,” said Peter Vinogradov, a friend. “He was a Saugerties fixture for about 30 years. He had a stroke in August and died. His family and friends put together this exhibit and Jen gave us this space. This is a small sample of his work.”
The works vary from large paintings to small drawings of individuals, some of them samples of the small portraits Gamache was known for. “His work covered quite a range of different styles, landscapes, but mostly he worked on these caricatures called The Joneses.” said Vinogradov. In a statement distributed at the retrospective, Gamache describes the Joneses as “icons of humanity’s greed and selfishness.”
For additional information about the Artisan Market, email info@newberryartisanmarket.com or call 845-217-5715
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