Art gallery’s longtime director, Kelly Gross, displays her own talent, collection
The Art Association of Jacksonville is pleased to welcome “Director’s Collection Exhibition” by Kelly Menard Gross to The David Strawn Art Gallery, 331 W. College Ave., Jacksonville, April 6-28. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, April 6 from 6-8 p.m. with “Gallery Talk” by Gross at 6:30 p.m. The gallery opening and reception is free and open to the public.
Kelly Menard Gross was born in Michigan and was relocated to Illinois when her parents moved to Jacksonville for their careers. Gross’ father, Rene Menard, was a lineman and later went on to earn a doctorate in economics from the University of Oklahoma and her mother, Marcia Emma Menard-Sved, is a retired registered nurse.
Gross began her long career at The David Strawn Art Gallery in September of 1991 after graduating with an M.B.A. in business administration from the University of Illinois. She also holds a B.A. degree from Illinois College with a major in economics and a minor in art.
At the beginning of her gallery career, her 1-year-old son Forrest, and 3 ½ years later, her second son Hunter Gross joined her at work on many days. More recently she has enjoyed the occasional visits by her 18-month grandson Fox, whose mother Morgan Oschwald enjoys the pottery classes at The David Strawn Art Gallery.
The first exhibit Kelly Menard Gross hung in 1991 was a photography exhibit which did not arrive with any wires on the back to hang the artwork. She spent several days affixing wires on the backs of each piece so it could be hung on the gallery walls. She has handled multiple situations as gallery director such as extremely late artwork delivery, the death of a featured artist and hanging in excess of 128 pieces of artwork at one time. Some of the more memorable shows include the artwork of Charlotte Cleeland, Marion Scott, Nellie Knopf and Toni Long.
Needless to say, Gross has lived and learned the hard way to perfect the art of arranging, displaying and hanging all types of artwork from photography, glass, marble and bronze sculpture, every different kind of paintings from pastel paintings, acrylic, oil and watercolor, ceramics, jewelry, mixed media, computer generated art, woodworking & furniture making, duck decoy carving, pencil drawings, soft sculpture, dyed wool paintings, fiber art, fabric and quilting, woodcut printmaking, hand-made paper, concrete, ceramic & steel sculpture, paper art, fused and blown glass, decorative gourds, “found” objects sculpture, bonsai trees, cartoon art, antique maps, Russian Icon art, gingerbread houses and hand-made baskets to name a few.
During her gallery show, Gross plans to showcase several pieces of her own work in addition to many pieces of artwork collected over her gallery career.
In addition to being The David Strawn Art Gallery’s director, she enjoys many different creative outlets from painting, drawing, photography and woodworking. She has won several awards for her pen and ink drawings and photography. She has recently erected a pole building at her home and is busy finishing the inside. Once completed, Gross has plans to continue her love of woodworking and wood turning.
Gallery hours April 7-28: Sundays from 1-3 p.m. and Tuesday-Saturday from 4-6 p.m. The gallery will be closed on Saturday, April 27 for the Beaux Arts Ball.
