This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today, we hear from Germaine Pataki-Thériault, Inge Pataki and Nikki Theriault of Gallery 78 in Fredericton.

GALLERY 78 IS 45 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR! MY MOTHER, INGE, AND FATHER, JAMES HAD THE VISION OF SHOWCASING AND PROMOTING THE INCREDIBLE ART OF ATLANTIC CANADA TO THE WORLD.

It started modestly in our Victorian home at 78 Brunswick Street and since 1989 the abundant talent of painters, printmakers, photographers, sculptors, ceramic and textile artists of the East Coast has been presented in the stately Queen Anne Revival home known as the Crocket House overlooking the Saint John River.

The spectacular beauty of the building perfectly suits the exceptional beauty of the art found inside. Gallery 78 has been known for all these years for its excellence in visual art, hospitality and customer service.

I remember helping at exhibition openings as a child and meeting nationally known artists at our dinner table. I loved growing up surrounded by art. I left my engineering job with the Department of Environment to help my mum when her life-long eye condition deteriorated. Ironically, it has now caused total blindness.

But thankfully I can still count on her wicked memory for expert advice, and I also have Véronique (Nikki) my eldest daughter to help with all the social media. A goal of Gallery 78 is to help bring the arts into everyone’s lives, so we strive to be as inclusive as possible, supporting the visual, literary, and performing arts.

We have given our space to help other visual arts organizations, poetry readings, dance, and musical performances. We make our beautiful interior space available for fundraisers and provide the space for free for musicians and artist demonstrations/workshops.

The past months have been a lot of work, but we are incredibly grateful. We are grateful every day that we are here in New Brunswick as the pandemic is happening. We are grateful for the measures that the government and Dr. Russell have enforced that have allowed us all to be safer than other places.

We are grateful for the fact that we have had a web presence since the late 1980s, that Jason Nugent our friend, photographer and web guy has helped us make it even better, and that we have fantastic clients who understand the many benefits of living with great art in their homes and that Canada Post and courier companies still delivered during this difficult time.

We loved dropping off artwork on people’s doorsteps and letting them try it in their homes. And we are grateful for the many testimonials we received from our clients about how happy and inspired and grateful they were for the art in their homes and how it helped them every day during their isolation.

The genius of artists and the power of art are extraordinary. Local businesses make a difference because they make the community a fantastic, vibrant, interesting place to live for our residents and entice others to visit here.