Friendship Gallery, Woodbury, NJ

I realized today that you couldn't find the Friendship Gallery with an online google search so I am posting this to get it out there. We began the Friendship Gallery about 2 years ago when the former SODAT tenants of the Underwood Building on the grounds of the Historic Woodbury Friends Meeting 122 N. Broad Street, Woodbury, went out of business. A small group of five cleared out the reception area and painted it and turned it into an Art Gallery. The five of us on the original committee held a group show to begin. Jo Ann Wright, painter, Jerome Barton and Susan Hagan, stained glass artists, Diana Brose, member of Friends and painter, Carleton Crispin, Property Manager at Woodbury Friends added 3D printed sculptures and a wood burned piece.

Currently, Jo Ann Wright has her first solo-retrospective up until January 31st. There are about 30 pieces including paintings, prints, and photographs and multi-media pieces from a variety of art shows. After Jo Ann's show, Diana Brose will put up her solo retrospective show.

The future of the Friendship Gallery remains to be seen as the South Jersey Artists Collaborative may be able to rent the Underwood Building if their grant comes through, under the direction of Loren Dann, painter.

Visits to the gallery are by appointment only. Call 856-430-5769 for the solo retrospective of Jo Ann Wright. Contact for Diana's show will be posted when her show goes up.

It gave me great pleasure to rescue a charming space from abandonment and turn it into a cultural arts space and it was a special delight for me to be able to have my first and only solo retrospective. I plan to do a memoir based on the paintings because seeing them in the show brought back so many memories of the 60 years represented by them. Each painting or print represents a dozen or more that were related by theme or media over that period of interest or that medium. For example there is one lithograph although I was a printmaking major at Rutgers The State University and did a wide range of print forms from woodcut to lithography. There is one colored pencil 'painting' to represent the dozenor more city store front portraits I did during the 80's when I lived in Philadelphia.

So far I have taken my friends to see the exhibition when we have lunch together in Woodbury. It is enough for me to have my friends enjoy my life's work. I have no interest in selling and many of the works on display are one of a kind and I wouldn't want to sell them. For example, I lost ten of the colored pencil city storefront portraits in a house fire in 2015 at my sister's home in Mickleton. Anyone interested in seein the show before it closes can contact me at 856-430-5769. Also I am on the grounds attending Meeting at Woodbury Friends every Sunday from 10:00 to 12:00. You can find me in the Meeting House.

Happy Trails! Happy New Year 2025 wrightj45@yahoo.com