By Monica Beck
Katherine Weston and her husband Stewart moved to the village in 2005. As a multi-media artist, searching for the art community in Brockport, she was surprised when she couldn’t even find a local gallery. Many small college towns have thriving art communities, full of shops and galleries. It’s true, Brockport does have some nice shops, but commerce is different than the creative arts; one deals in ideas and shared artistic vision, whereas the other deals in the exchange of dollars for goods. Before the Different Path came into existence there were no public places, outside of the college where artists could display their work, and no space where the arts-loving community could gather on a regular basis. The conspicuous void in our cultural landscape got Katherine thinking. She wanted a place where artists could meet, create art with each other, and share it with the public.
Some believe the universe was first dreamed, and later ideas achieved form. Over time, Katherine’s vision evolved, and Different Path began to take shape. The gallery was created in stages. Her first priority was to find a space where she could create her art. At home, there were too many distractions which interfered with it, so in 2010 she bought the building that housed Country Treasures on Market St. It had been vacant for some time and initially no community support was available for renovations. Eventually, she did receive a grant from the village set aside for historic preservation of downtown buildings, and the current façade was added. Once that was completed, she opened her gallery shop where artists could sell their strictly hand-made arts and crafts. Her personal art studio was in the back of the shop.
The next stage of the Different Path was the renovation of the west side of the building, where free cultural events could be held for the community, as well as a place where artists could exhibit their art. Art openings and performing arts are featured here, such as the music or the SundaySessions which are held most Sundays from 1-3:30PM. Katherine also holds poetry and literary readings here and dance performances as well. In fact, she just had an art opening on Friday, February 9th which was well attended by the public even though a winter storm had just dumped twelve inches of heavy snow on the area. What a surprise! Even snow can’t stop a good thing.
Now in 2013 the upstairs is home to Village Music—a music school where students can study a variety of instruments. Sara Hart has a studio here where she teaches Figure Drawing. Across the hall from her studio is another room where art is displayed. Just last summer art workshops for kids were held here, as well as workshops for adults.
The most recent addition to a Different Path was the pottery studio in the back of the building where lessons in hand building and throwing are offered. It seems there is never a boring moment (well almost never); you can usually find something going on in what I consider Brockport’s cultural hub. We can thank Katherine Weston for this. Her vision, hard work, dedication to the arts as well as her sacrifice, has made all of this possible for us. Get on her mailing list, stop into the gallery when you can. Those of us who’ve already discovered a Different Path would like to commend for her contribution to our community. Since the gallery entered the local scene, Brockport has become a much more interesting place.
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