ART

Davidson & Daughters closes shop

By Chris Thompson

After five years, Davidson & Daughters Contemporary Art is closing its doors. Once its current show of Sigrun Muller’s collage works, Robert Nason’s works on paper, and Laurie Downey’s drawings and sculpture finishes on January 27, the gallery will take a month-long hiatus while it gears up for its final exhibition. It reopens March 3 for this swansong show, featuring mixed-media work by Diane Bowie Zailtin and a collection of handmade books by students of Rebecca Goodale. And after March 31, Davidson & Daughters will be gone for good.

Having been part of Maine’s arts scene for the past 40 years, proprietor Nancy Davidson’s extensive experience made Davidson & Daughters a home for consistently engaging exhibitions. Any way you cut it, the disappearance of such a respected space and its dependable programming is a real loss.

The good news is that Davidson herself isn’t planning on going anywhere. When a door closes, a window usually opens somewhere nearby. In this case it’s several windows, those of the Eastland Gallery, and they’re literally right across the street. Davidson and her business partner Andy Versoza (of Aucocisco Gallery) opened the Eastland Gallery this fall, on the ground floor of the Eastland Park Hotel.

“I had already been planning to make the move to the Eastland when Andy and I became business partners,” Davidson says. “We agreed to give the Eastland Gallery a six month trial period to see how it went before I made the decision to discontinue Davidson & Daughters.”

A few months into its five-year lease with the hotel, the gallery’s success has convinced her to invest all her energy and expertise in the new venture.

Before finalizing its closure, Davidson had already scheduled shows for several of Davidson & Daughters’ artists, so the Eastland’s early 2001 schedule will consist mainly of exhibitions of their works. Though it’s too soon to predict what kind of impact it will have on New England’s cultural landscape, the Eastland has already held a succession of thoughtful shows bringing drawing, painting, and sculpture comfortably together with a range of craft works. It should be interesting to see how Davidson’s full-time involvement shapes its further development.